Re: oaklisp: contains 500kB binary in source
Jeroen van Wolffelaar <jeroen@wolffelaar.nl>:
> I just noted that oaklisp has a 500kB binary called 'oakworld.bin' in
> src/world. oaklisp is GPL. It seems one can re-create this binary with
> oaklisp, but to build/use oaklisp, you'll first need the .bin. So, there
> is no real bootstrapping provided AFAICS, in any case, it isn't used
> since the oakworld.bin is provided in the source tarball.
>
> Is this acceptable? For example gcc also cannot be rebuild without first
> having some C compiler. But gcc is a different beast.
>From http://bugs.debian.org/122117 I get the impression that it's the
same sort of situation as with gcc: a programming language X is
implemented in the language X, and so it has a build dependency on
itself, in the absence of alternative implementations.
GHC seems to be in the same situation: there are other implementations
of Haskell, but GHC uses some GHC-specific features, so you have to
compile it with GHC.
I assume that cyclic Build-Depends are acceptable in Debian. It would
be difficult if they weren't.
Reply to: