[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Visualboy Advance question.



On Mon, Jul 12, 2004 at 02:05:16AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 10, 2004 at 10:07:35PM +1000, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> > I don't think that the basis for a package's inclusion in main should be the
> > packaging in main of appropriate content.
> 
> The Debian Policy says something pretty close to that, in my view.
> 
>   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",

I presume this condition is the basis for your view.  I concur, but with
reservations when it comes to content, because there is a far wider range of
potential bitstreams which would allow the program to operate.

> OTOH, as you're sure to note, an easy way around this is that a package can
> be completely useless in main as long as what it depends on isn't a
> package.  Maybe that *was* your point.

Not exactly.  I'm not a fan of useless software on the whole, so I don't
believe that your work-around is a winner.  

I prefer to fall back on the last sentence of the first clause of the social
contract: "We will never make the system require the use of a non-free
component.".  Providing a piece of software which can only use non-free
content is "requiring the use of a non-free component", IMO.

> > That would be a waste of archive resources.
> 
> Er, before heading down this road, I think you should attempt an objective
> demonstration that we seem to give a damn about wasting archive resources
> in the first place.

We don't give a damn?  That's a pity.

- Matt



Reply to: