Re: Auto again..

[Behan Webster <behanw@verisim.com>]

Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> 
> Okay, one more quick question, should Deity go through and attempt to
> complete dependancies for all packages when it loads up? This would mean
> that if someone selects suggests as being an important dependancy it would
> result in all suggested packages being installed.
>
> Or, should packages that are allready correct simply be ignored? and only
> do auto installations for packages that are broken somehow or are not
> installed yet?

That is a good question.

Lessee:

1) Fix all "dependencies" asap (i.e. if someone turns on "auto-install
suggests", then all suggests for packages installed would be
auto-selected for installation immediately).

Pro:
  - Consistancy (all suggests are installed for every package)
  - Immediate gratification (the changes take place immediately)

Con:
  - Turning on suggests means a lot of packages could all of a sudden be
selected
  - Developpers would have to be very careful what packages they
recomended or suggested (this may not be any different from what we have
today, however)


2) Only do auto-installation of new "dependencies" from this time
forward (i.e. if someone turns on "auto-install suggests", then packages
currently installed will be left alone, but suggested packages from this
time forth will be auto-selected for installation).

Pro:
  - A lot of packages won't be forced on the user all of a sudden.
  - You could install certain select packages and all their suggested
packages before turning "auto-install suggests" off again.

Con:
  - If someone wanted all the suggested packages to be installed, then
they would have to go around and reinstall all packages that suggest
other packages.


Is there anyway we could have both of these as a user controlled option?

What do the rest of you think about this question?

Geez, I need to sit down and design the option window one of these
days.  8)

Behan

-- 
Behan Webster     mailto:behanw@verisim.com
+1-613-224-7547   http://www.verisim.com/