Re: Dependencies of -dbg and -doc packages
Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> writes:
> Depends on who "we" are; if "we" are experienced, tech-savvy people like
> yourself then you are right. If "we" have just switched to Debian because
> of hearsay about the quality of Ada packages in Debian, then "we" need a
> way to navigate the list of packages interactively to discover everything
> available. So, I stand by my opinion that "we" need some sort of
> dependency.
You seem to be addressing several different problems at once.
The first problem is "how does the maintainer of gnat get a list of all
packages depending on gnat, in order to see how well they upgrade from
Lenny to Squeeze"
That is solved by 'apt-rdepends -r libgnat-4.4'.
Note that I changed this to 'libgnat' rather than 'gnat'; only source
packages need to depend on gnat; libraries depend on libgnat.
The second problem is "how does someone new to Debian discover all the
Ada packages that are available".
The answer could be the same, or it could be "run the aptitude character
based GUI, and type some obsure commands", or it could be "run the
Synaptic modern GUI, use the buttons to search for gnat in
'dependencies'".
The latter seems likely to be the closest to the "typical" modern user's
expectations, except that they will be more likely to try searching for
"Ada" in "description and name" first, and get _lots_ of false positives
(that's what I just did :).
But everyone will have different expectations, so it's good that we have
three possible answers. Perhaps we can post these answers in a Debian
Ada FAQ somewhere?
They all suffer from various failures. apt-rdepends gives a precise
list, but doesn't give any descriptions. The aptitude character GUI
apparently only reports about installed packages, which is likely to be
none on a new machine. The Synaptic search requires use of a rodent-like
attachment :), gives some false positives, and leaves out
libopentoken-dbg (I'm not clear why).
> I agree with Jacob that Recommends: is enough in this case.
None of the answers above rely on Recommends:, only on Depends: or text
searches of package name and/or description. What would change if
Recommends: was added?
> There is another problem with your approach. Suppose I do:
>
> aptitude install $(apt-rdepend -r gnat-4.3)
Now we are talking about a different problem; how to install packages
once we find out about them.
I doubt _any_ user will want to simply install "everything that uses
Ada". I expect them to browse the list, decide to install a couple of
packages to start with, and type:
aptitude install libopentoken-dev libgnadesqlite-dev
or just click on the check boxes in Synaptic.
>>> I am pondering whether the -dev package should also Suggest: or
>>> Recommend:
>>> the -dbg package(s).
>>
>> No; we should assume that people doing Ada work on Debian are familiar
>> with general Debian packaging policy, and the Ada policy in particular.
>
> I don't think that's a reasonable assumption. For starters, the Debian
> Policy for Ada is not even a package in Debian. I think I'll upload it
> eventually, though. But I'd like Debian to be attractive to beginners
> and seasoned developers alike.
Ok. That means we need a Debian Ada FAQ, that addresses the concerns above.
--
-- Stephe
Reply to: