Re: "super" pkgs (was Re: Back to RedHat)

[Michael Stone <mstone@itri.loyola.edu>]

Quoting David Engel (dlengel@home.com):
> On Tue, Sep 29, 1998 at 10:09:45AM +0200, Federico Di Gregorio wrote:
> > Yes. The problem of super-packages is that if you install, say, 20
> > normal packages by a single "click", you expect to remove them the
> > same way
> 
> This is why the idea of (semi-)automatically removing indirectly
> selected packages goes hand-in-hand with the super packages idea.  I
> do consider them separate ideas though since they are useful by
> themselves.

I think this needs to be handled pretty carefully; I can envision a
situation where a user might get used to using a program that belongs to
a superpackage, without knowing its relation to the superpackage. When
he goes to clean up, he might get a nasty surprise. I think the idea of
automatically removing children (for lack of a better term) is too
risky. A special "clean-up" operation, complete with prompts, might be a
better idea.

Mike Stone