On Fri, Dec 31, 1999 at 12:03:02AM -0800, Robert Woodcock wrote:
> Hello, I think TeX and Emacs should no longer be standard. The purpose of
> this message is to build a concensus for this so a bug can be filed against
> ftp.debian.org to have it done.
>
> Specifically, these packages should be made optional:
>
> tetex-lib, tetex-base, tetex-bin, emacs20, emacs20-el, emacsen-common
I have no major objections, even if I am starting to use tex more and
more.
> My reasoning is a large number of Debian users have no use for these
> subsystems, therefore they should be add-ons instead of default
> infrastructure.
I think you might have some objections to moving emacs to optional, but I
also think emacs is hardly something that "any reasonable system should
have".. I _DO_ think emacs is something that any complete multiuser
system should have, but it's not something that should be expected to be
there always any more than pico is.
> They place a burden on users who do not make use of them, because of their
> size and installation time. The debian packages for tetex currently in
> standard are 13381KB. The debian packages for emacs20 currently in standard
> are 14372KB bytes. TeTeX installs to 33616KB. Emacs 20 installs to 48925KB.
This is IMO very good reasoning for making them optional.
> Also, if this is to occur, Policy must change. It currently states:
>
> It doesn't include many large applications, but it does include Emacs
> (this is more of a piece of infrastructure than an application) and a
> reasonable subset of TeX and LaTeX (if this is possible without X). [2]
We need to update that. Would be better to throw out the priority system
all together at some point, but for now an update would suffice.
--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> Debian Linux developer
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you need them to do a job.
-- Craig Sanders
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