dummy interpreters
Hi folks!
If have another dependency question: I'm currently making the new package
of xblast. xblast is a standard binary but there is a tk-program
xblast_setup included that can be used to set up different parameters of
the game.
These parameters can also be set via the standard xblast binary, so
xblast_setup is not required.
Should I make the package depend on tk now? It works perfectly without tk.
So IMHO I would specify tk as `suggested'. (The way dselect handles
`recommends' makes it to hard for the user not to install the package--but
that's another discussion.)
But if I only `suggest' tk one might not install it and fail when one
tries to start xblast_setup. There is only 2 solution I see to prevent
this: Disable xblast_setup in some way.
I think this is a generally problem. What about this solution:
* Make xblast `suggest' tk so the user gets informed that tk would be
nice, but is not required.
* Have some base package provide `stub interpreters' for all possible
interpreters, e.g. wish, tclsh, perl, csh, etc.
The dummy interpreters could issue an error message when invoked, that
states that the interpreter is missing and give instructions in how to
install them. (So a simple shell script with a few echo statements would
suffice.)
When the real interpreter is installed, it should `hide' the dummy.
Perhaps this could be done via `alternatives'.
Any comments?
Cheers,
Chris
-- _,, Christian Schwarz
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