On Debian and Fedora experiences

[Tom 'spot' Callaway]

On Tue, 2006-12-05 at 04:03 -0500, seth vidal wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-12-05 at 08:50 +0000, Matej Cepl wrote:
> > Jesse Keating scripst:
> > > And how do you expect automated tools to handle these soft requirements?
> > > Either you always install them, or you never do, which basically brings
> > > up the question, whats the point?  Why do this instead of just Requires
> > > or not?
> > 
> > That's sure one possible solution, except that it seems to be against KISS
> > principle -- you get miriad new packages (mplayer-aalib, xine-lib-aalib,
> > etc. for any weird library there is) just to keep Requires:/Suggests:
> > away. May be it is better solution, I don't know, and I don't understand
> > this area that much as an engineer (just as an user), but it seems to me
> > similar to crazy things dones by Debian people just to be able to keep
> > everything inside Debian source package just Makefile.
> 
> I don't think anyone is opposed to the idea of suggests/recommends
> inherently. I, for one, would just like us to make sure we understand
> the policies that it entails. Especially when we think of things like
> 'enhances' which is a reverse dependency.
> 
> The policies have to include:
> - default, automatic mode
> - default, prompted mode

Automatically installing suggests/enhances packages is different from
having them be Requires how? :)

IMHO, the only way this makes sense to waste time on is if all the
depsolvers prompt the user.

Suggested Optional Packages
============================
The packages you have selected to install/upgrade suggest some related
packages which may enhance your user experience, but are not required.

Install shoes [y/N]: y
Install sandals [y/N]: n
Install pants [y/N]: yesyesyes

I know this has to recurse to be useful.

~spot