Re: [PROPOSED] Change package relations policy to remove references to non-free from main
On Wed, Dec 01, 1999 at 04:30:19PM -0800, Chris Waters wrote:
> A Weak-Suggests could be every bit as invisible as my current solution
> -- maybe even more so -- for those who don't want non-main software,
> but would have big advantages for those who *do* use non-main
> software.
>
> Enhances is too much hassle to deal with. It violates encapsulation.
> It's information about the (soft) dependencies of my package, but
> isn't under my control. I'll never bother.
I must say, the Weak-Suggests sounds rather nice -- but would it (and the
proper implementation around these fields in dselect and apt) be enough for
the FSF to smile upon Debian?
I can see a usefulness for Enhances, but it seems to be "pointing in the
wrong direction" in many cases. Lets say a data-collection program includes,
as a few other friendlies, some perl scripts, some tcl scripts, some python
scripts, contributed by others, perhaps. The core of the package doesn't
Depend on perl, nor tcl, nor python; perl tcl and python then ehance the
functionality of the package, but .. filing a bug report against perl tcl
and python asking for the inclusion of an "Enhances" line is not very kind.
However, if someone has a little interface to emacs to let one wash one's
laundry, Enhance: emacsen seems like a nice thing to offer. (Just think -- I
don't have emacs on my computer, dselect could elect to not show me any
packages that only Enhance: emacsen -- that alone would make package
selection at install time much faster. :)
So, perhaps to throw away Enhances is throwing away a useful feature, but I
don't see Enhances as the solution to the well-encapsulated of Debian's
main. Weak-Suggests, if implemented by the software ("echo '1' >
/etc/FSF_Strict" :) would be an easy extension of the existing system, and
if the FSF seems to like the idea, perhaps it should be the one to be
implemented.
(Maybe another name? DFSG-broken-yet-suggested-all-the-same: ? :)
Maybe Enhance ought to be added down the road.. :)
$0.02
--
Seth Arnold | http://www.willamette.edu/~sarnold/
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