Re: What package do you need?

>>>>> "Malcolm" == Malcolm Purvis <[email protected]> writes:

    Malcolm> 2) The user uses PUI to get the package but not the
    Malcolm> dependencies.  In this case, instead of making the user
    Malcolm> type 'r' get mark the dependencies, why not mark them
    Malcolm> automatically when a package is selected (and
    Malcolm> de-selecting the package would de-select all the
    Malcolm> dependencies not otherwise explicitly selected)?

This doesn't work because the dependencies we currently know about are
for build time.  That is, defsubsts and macros which inline code are
dependencies (even if you never call any functions), while autoloaded
functions are not.

Ie, we need to do the work Jerry is suggesting anyway.

    Malcolm> - Out of date packages are just as important as missing
    Malcolm> ones ('The file you want is in version X of package Y')
    Malcolm> because files occasionally get moved around.

Yeah, this has been noticed before, and requested by third-party
maintainers.  But XEmacs has no concept of a conditional dependency at
all, besides the problem mentioned above.

    Malcolm> - Don't forget multi-user sites.  Not every user has
    Malcolm> write access to the package installation area.

If they don't have access to ~/.xemacs they're in big trouble.  I'm
not sure whether PUI has good heuristics or even a UI for that, but
the package system itself handles it fine.


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