Re: RFC: relaxation of debian-emacs-policy dependency requirements

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Rob Browning writes ("Re: RFC: relaxation of debian-emacs-policy dependency requirements"):
> If the package doesn't need to use any of the emacsen-common build
> infrastructure (doesn't need to byte-compile for each flavor, etc.),
> then it doesn't need to have any emacsen-related dependencies -- that's
> already in policy.

Ah, yes, (5) of the Emacs policy.  Perhaps the wossname-el packages
are being invented by maintainers who haven't read that part ?

Packages which seem to be affected[1] include
  gettext-el
  gnu-smalltalk-el
  gri-el
  cmuscheme48-el
  timidity-el
  uim-el  (which also seems to be mistakenly "Architecture: any")
  verbiste-el

[1] I searched lenny for binary packages whose names ended in .el,
which seemed to come from a non-emacs-related source package.  This is
a surprisingly short list.  There were 48 binary packages ending in
-el but mostly they seem to come from dedicated source packages.

Perhaps it would be sensible to give some quantitative guidance in the
Emacs policy and/or just file bugs on those packages ?

Ian.