Re: Dependencies of -dbg and -doc packages
Jacob Sparre Andersen wrote:
> Ludovic Brenta wrote:
>> Stephen Leake wrote:
>
>>> [...] "how does someone new to Debian discover all the
>>> Ada packages that are available".
>
> And "how can he/she easily install a complete Ada
> development environment".
>
>>> 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 :).
>
> I think we should expect people to search for "Ada". How
> can we help them get most out of that query?
There is a virtual package "ada-compiler" provided by gnat;
from there they should follow the reverse dependencies.
Granted, that may not be as obvious as it could be.
[...]
>> 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.
>
> How do the users benefit from debtags? Does Synaptic give
> search results with matching debtags higher priority than
> those with matching descriptions?
You search either by browsing the trees OR by looking for keywords
OR by looking for a set of debtags. There is no priority involved;
you get a different result set for each query.
>>> 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.
>
> Wouldn't my suggestion of a dummy "Ada developer's complete
> toolbox" package solve this?
Yes; I think I'll try to implement your suggestion when I
get around to it. The problem is that this meta-package
would require maintenance.
>>> 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 find that process so annoying, so I have created an awful
> hack, which installs all the Ada packages I know of in one
> step. I just want to have everything available fast. Once
> we are in a situation where Debian has five Ada libraries
> for each problem, it might not be the ideal situation, but
> right now visibility and easy access is more important.
It would be nice if you would turn this hack into a .deb
meta-package called "ada-development-environment" and let me
sponsor it :)
--
Ludovic Brenta.
Reply to: