Re: Terminal emulators and command line arguments (again!)

[Raphael Geissert <atomo64+debian@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Steve McIntyre wrote:

> 
> I want to fix this, but do it right. I can see some options here:
> 
>  1. Force all seyon users to install xterm by using a direct
>     dependency on *just* xterm and call it instead of
>     x-terminal-emulator
> 
>  2. Work out a standard set of command line options that must be
>     supported by each package that Provides: x-terminal-emulator

I don't think it is feasible.

> 
>  3. Write a wrapper script to deal with each possible terminal program
>     and map from a standard set of options to the specific options for
>     that program.

I'd go this way, letting each terminal emulator ship a shell (or bash, or
perl, or whatever; depends on the language used on the wrapper) script
implementing the arguments conversion for its own terminal.

Pros:

* This reduces the amount of work required by the maintainer of the package
providing such a wrapper.
* The wrapper script could be shipped in debianutils (Essential: yes)
without making it add any kind of strong dependency on x-terminal-emulator.

(Pseudo) Cons:

* Puts a requirement to ship such a "complementing" script to every package
that Provides: x-terminal-emulator.

> 
> Thoughts?
> 

Cheers,
Raphael Geissert