How tightly should main be self-contained?

[Simon Law <sfllaw@debian.org>]

Hi guys,

Some users have approached me about my packaging on tvtime, which lives
in main.  It benefits greatly from libdscaler, a contrib package.  They
are asking that tvtime Suggests libdscaler.  I thought that the
appropriate thing to do was to have libdscaler Extends tvtime.

	My impressions of the spirit of Policy 2.2.1 is that main should
stand alone, and should not recommend any non-free software.  Here is
the verbatim text for your inspection.

    2.2.1 The main section
    
    Every package in main and non-US/main must comply with the DFSG
    (Debian Free Software Guidelines).
    
    In addition, the packages in main
    
       * must not require a package outside of main for compilation or
         execution (thus, the package must not declare a "Depends",
         "Recommends", or "Build-Depends" relationship on a non-main
         package),
       * must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them, and
       * must meet all policy requirements presented in this manual.

	I would be glad to change it if there were a fair number of
developers who think that suggesting contrib software is fine.

Simon