Re: Do we really care how many floppies are in the base?

[Raul Miller <rdm@tad.micro.umn.edu>]

   vi is standard for every Unix, if one likes it or not. It would
   cause much confusion if we release a system that doesn't has this
   editor in the base, but another.

Hmm..  let's see.  I'm composing this message on an SGI machine
running ultrix.

bash$ type vi
vi is /usr/ucb/vi
bash$ 

Now, the base system pretty much only includes stuff that absolutely
has to be available before /usr is mounted.  Seems to me that there's
at least one system besides linux which doesn't have vi available till
/usr is mounted...

Please realize that base has several meanings in the context of
debian:

There's the base disks, [the context of the current subject thread].
There's also the base Section.  There's also the base Priority.  As it
happens, vi is none of these.

Vi is not on the base disks because it's not essential for installing
the first package on a new system.

Vi is not in the base Section, because it's in the editors Section.
[These correspond to directories under the debian/binary/ directory.]

Vi's priority is not "base", it's "standard".  Then again, the same
holds for cc (it's standard, not base).  If people don't want a
standard system, that's their business.

-- 
Raul