Re: Dependencies of -dbg and -doc packages
Stephen Leake wrote:
> 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.
Not really; forget about why I used aptitude in the first place; I
explained
only as a matter of introduction. I am probably the person who knows best
what Ada packages are available in Debian :) So the real problem is the
second one:
> 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.
No; aptitude shows all packages, installed or not (in different sub-trees
by default).
> The Synaptic search requires use of a rodent-like
> attachment :), gives some false positives, and leaves out
> libopentoken-dbg (I'm not clear why).
That's why I think that ensuring that all Ada packages are linked with
one another in some sensible way would be a big help.
Note: there is a fourth answer: use debtags. This is available both
in aptitude and in synaptic; but it requires brave souls to add tags
to each package and that's not done in the debian/control files but
externally in a tags database.
[...]
> Now we are talking about a different problem; how to install packages
> once we find out about them.
I'd like this to be as immediate as possible; there should not be separate
commands.
> 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.
Yes. This is why our hypothetical user needs a browsable list of such
packages in one screen in aptitude or Synaptic. The reverse dependencies
of gnat-4.3 or gnat-4.4 is such a list but it is a wee bit incomplete
(no -doc or -dbg packages visible). Moreover, if you look at all the
immediate reverse dependencies of gnat-4.3 and install them all, you
will be missing several -doc or -dbg packages and you won't even know
about that.
If each -dev package (already visible in this list) would Suggest the
corresponding -dbg package and Recommend the corresponding -doc package
(which is the current proposal), the whole selection + installation
process would be streamlined.
[...]
> Ok. That means we need a Debian Ada FAQ, that addresses the concerns
> above.
Good idea but insufficient. There ought to be a way for beginners to
browse the list of available packages, find all Ada packages easily,
install them on the spot, and *then* wonder whether there exists a
FAQ and where it is.
--
Ludovic Brenta.
Reply to: