Re: Fwd: python-biggles bug
On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 10:47:11PM +0200, Martin Sj?gren wrote:
> m??n 2002-09-23 klockan 22.34 skrev Graham Wilson:
[...]
> > > I can't think of a reason why you'd want the default package (as far
> > > as I can see they are useless, since you have to rebuild your
> > > packages every time a new python version comes out anyway). As an
> > > alternative, tell me why you need a default package and I'll create
> > > one (I just don't really see the point).
>
> This I don't agree with, though. :) It definitely makes sense to have a
> package that works with the default Python version, less number juggling
> for the user.
I think once you start doing it, you can see the reason for it :-)
> > he thought python policy was unclear on this issue.
>
> As I said above, I think it's unclear too, and should be more precise.
> Is it the intention that if you have pythonX.Y-foo and pythonZ.W-foo you
> *may*, *should* or *must* have a python-foo package?
The policy was made flexible so that developers could do what they wanted.
It now looks like the plethora of choices is leading to confusion :-)
There are reasons why not to have a python-foo, the main one being when
you have only python1.5-foo, and python1.6-foo, but python is at version
2.1. This will probably happen to a few packages when python (2.2) comes
out. Some of those packages might never have a python2.2-foo, but that
doesn't mean the python1.5-foo is any less useful.
"pythonX.Y-foo" supports "pythonX.Y", "python-foo" supports "python". Think of
"python" and "pythonX.Y" as being different versions. The implications of
this are subtle, but once you start following the dependency trails through
upgrades etc, it has important implications. Without a "python-foo", you are
not supporting the default python.
However, perhaps the python policy should have some "highly recommeneded"s
in there to help people decide what to do. A few "use-cases" that show
exactly why they are a good idea wouldn't hurt either.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ABO: finger abo@minkirri.apana.org.au for more info, including pgp key
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: