On Sun, Dec 10, 2000 at 07:02:30PM -0800, Erik Steffl wrote: > David Starner wrote: > > and so on, for every single window manager. (I guess the task I picked > > at the time installed just about every window manager in Debian at the > > time.) It was the single most annoying thing about the Hamm install for > > me. > > well, it might be annoying but it's not going to break your system. > besides the task could have had one list with radio buttons where you > would pick up one, it's just a matter of implementation. Think about doing that for every alternative choice - I'm looking at 80 different lists on my system. I don't care which awk, which perl, which etags, which rxvt, which vi, which of a lot things comes up, as long as it works. > > alternatives are designed so the best general purpose tool rises to the > > top. If it matters, fix it manually, which is designed to be simple and > > easy. > > quietly replacing another program (possibly quite different) possibly > breaks the system, at least partly - like the x-terminal-emulator thing > that does not support required options for debian menus (text). > > now it's true that I can fix it but the question is, why should the > installation break the system? The installation shouldn't break the system. That's a bug in the program that provided x-terminal-emulator without providing the needed options, and probably a bug in policy for not specifying the needed options. It's not a bug in alternatives. > also, I don't want to have the generally best program forced on me (or > anybody else). the fact that it can be changed later does not matter. It's not forced on you, you installed it. Then the computer was forced to make a choice for which program should come up when you asked for foo-alternative. Any guess is going to be wrong sometimes. If it matters which one comes up, then change it. Out of those 80 alternatives on my system, I've manually set 1. How would it be easier on me, if I had to deal with all 80 up front instead dealing with that one when I needed to. > and. of course, the terminal emulator that does not support options > that debian uses should not be used as one of the x-terminal-emulators, > that just does not make sense. It's a bug. It's not a big thing, just submit a bug on the package. It's not worth making huge changes in the alternatives system for. -- David Starner - dvdeug@hushmail.com http://dvdeug.dhis.org And crawling, on the planet's face, some insects called the human race. Lost in space, lost in time, and meaning. -- RHPS
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