Bug#621479: debian-policy: retire legacy Motif policy (11.8.8)

[Justin B Rye <jbr@edlug.org.uk>]

Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.9.2.0
Severity: wishlist

I was just looking at the incoming version of policy, and it occurred
to me: is there any particular reason why there still needs to be a
section in policy for "The OSF/Motif and OpenMotif libraries"?  It
defines the circumstances under which packages compiled against
non-free Motif should be given names with -smotif or -dmotif suffixes;
but the last such package left in the archive vanished or switched to
LessTif somewhere around about Sarge.  The only remaining rdeps of
libmotif4 that I can see anywhere in Debian are the other members of
the openmotif source package.

All the rest of the section seems to be rules that simply clarify the
non-free nature of software with non-free library dependencies.  So
isn't it time these ancient special-case regulations about a library
that nobody's using were taken off the books?

If anybody's worried about the risk of opening the floodgates to new
packages depending on Motif, you could consider the alternative of
keeping just the first sentence, changing one word: 

   Programs that require the non-DFSG-compliant OSF/Motif or OpenMotif
 - libraries[90] should be compiled against and tested with LessTif (a
 + libraries[90] must be compiled against and tested with LessTif (a
   free re-implementation of Motif) instead.

But a "don't depend on this library" warning might as well live in
libmotif-dev's control file instead, preferably in the form of a
"Section: non-free/oldlibs".

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-2-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

debian-policy depends on no packages.

debian-policy recommends no packages.

Versions of packages debian-policy suggests:
ii  doc-base                      0.10.1     utilities to manage online documen

-- no debconf information
-- 
JBR
Ankh kak! (Ancient Egyptian blessing)