Re: refdb-elisp Debian package broken?

Hi Justus,

Justus Piater wrote:
> - How about separating the refdb deb package into refdb-server and
>   refdb-clients? Then, many users will just need to install the latter
>   on their machine. And, refdb-elisp should depend on refdb-clients.
>   

That's a good suggestion but, to be honest, it's not one I'm in a hurry 
to implement.  Markus has certainly made the option easier by providing 
the configure switches '--disable-server' and '--disable-clients'.  It 
is still, however, a non-trivial task.  The advantage of splitting them 
is obvious but not really all that significant.  After all, you don't 
have to run the server and you don't have to run the clients.  I'll 
likely get around to doing it when I have some spare time ;-) .  At the 
moment I'm working on updating the vim-docbk-xml packages to work with 
Vim 7.x and then will be working on a vim-latex version of the package.  
If there is significant demand for splitting the refdb package  ("I can 
use that now", not "yeah, sounds like a good idea") I'll get to it sooner.
> - If ted is only needed to display .rtf, I think refdb-elisp should
>   not depend on it (and probably not on xpdf and gv either), as other
>   choices exists.

Other choices do, indeed, exist but let me explain why I am forced to 
make a default choice on behalf of the package user.  Incidentally, this 
is where the limits of packaging become obvious in comparison to 
building from source.  When building from source Markus' configure 
script looks through all the likely rtf, pdf and ps viewers and picks 
the first one it finds.  For example, it looks in turn for the following 
rtf viewers -- openoffice.org, abiword, ted, Ted, kword, TextEdit, 
soffice, oowriter, openoffice.org-2.0.0, openoffice.org-1.1.4 write & 
openoffice.org.  When it finds a match it records it in the 
refdb-mode-config.el file.  If my reading of autotools documentation is 
correct, the build won't actually fail if none of the potential rtf 
viewers is detected by configure, but there will be no rtf viewer 
specified.  Same for the pdf and ps viewers.

That is the situation when building from source.  Obviously, this 
process does not occur on the user's machine when they install from a 
debian package.  I have to decide ahead of time what default viewers to 
set in refdb-mode-config.el and force them to be available on the user's 
machine by declaring a dependency on them.  One of the primary goals of 
creating a package is to provide users with a fully functioning 
application "out of the box".  They will rightly expect all operations 
explained in the manual to work after the install.  The manual says 
certain keypresses will transform their document into pdf, ps or pdf 
format and display it in viewers.  If I follow your advice and specify 
nothing in refdb-mode-config.el that functionality will not be present 
after install.

So, I force dependencies on gv, xpdf and ted to ensure full 
functionality of the application.  Why did I pick them?  Because they 
are the smallest applications I could find that did the job well.  It's 
a trade-off: full functionality "out-of-the-box" at the cost of forcing 
the install of three small apps some people may never use.

In short, I have to follow the application's build and install process 
and ensure the package reflects that.  Since the build process examines 
the user's system and picks certain viewers, I have to do that also.  
The dependencies simply ensure my choice is always valid.

Incidentally, if you want to change the default viewers, all you have to 
do is edit refdb-mode-config.el.  Please note the following extract from 
the README.Debian file included in the package:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Default viewers

The following are the default viewers:

pdf = xpdf
ps  = gv
rtf = ted

These can be changed by editing the configuration file
'/etc/refdb-mode-config.el'.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the moment I have no plans to remove the use of these default viewers 
or, therefore, the dependence on these apps' packages.

Regards,
David.

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