Re: j2se1.3 now in /Incoming

[Ben Burton <bburton@mail.math.okstate.edu>]

Hi.  I checked out the j2se1.3 packages and they look great;
good work on finally getting them in debian proper. :)

I do have one question, and you're going to hate me for it but I'm going
to ask it anyway.

What are we doing about the java2 dependency issue?  There was a long
thread about this recently and (I believe) general consensus was that
there should be:

Provides: java2-virtual-machine (or java2-runtime?)
Provides: java2-compiler

The j2se1.3 packages however have (I believe):

Provides: j2re
Provides: j2sdk

Your argument against java2-virtual-machine and java2-compiler was that
there was no other java2 environment in debian in the short-term future.
But this is not an argument that says java2-* is bad; it's simply an
argument that says one proposal is not immediately more useful than the
other.

Both methods use virtual packages that can't be versioned.  Both methods
allow java2 apps to have a single depends that will catch any java2
JVM/compiler.

However, the java2-* method has the advantage that it reflects the
general consensus of the discussion that was raised.  What's wrong with
using the java2-* virtual packages?

Not to bitch straight after the upload :) - but I'm just bringing this up
now before we start getting java2 apps/libraries uploaded that will need
appropriate Depends: lines.

Ben. :)