[Mageia-dev] Build-in or stand-alone module for X to support Y

[Kamil Rytarowski]

W dniu 10.12.2011 13:45, Maarten Vanraes pisze:
> Op zaterdag 10 december 2011 13:12:52 schreef Kamil Rytarowski:
>> Hello!
>>
>> Situation:
>> A package X may have support for a package Y, by a module as a build in
>> X or stand-alone package. All modules are possible to turn-on and to
>> turn-off in a menu of X.
>>
>> And there is a discussion because there is no Y at all in Mageia.
>> Person A says:
>> - include the module, even if there is no Y in Mageia (and maybe never
>> will be included), because an end-user can install Y from alternative
>> source or compile it from sources; and don't add Suggests/Requires for Y
>> in the package, because it's obvious that this is to support Y; also
>> installing Y from alternative sources/self-compilation is much simpler
>> than reinstalling X with support for Y
>> Person B says:
>> - don't include the module, because Y is a dependency for the module of
>> X - and we don't ship broken packages that aren't self-contained; so it
>> must be excluded from X or the nobody has package Y and maintain it
>>
>> Neither A nor B want to work with Y package.
>>
>> Who is right?
> imho, if Y is wanted by some people, and X works more of less fine without Y
> even if it's support is compiled, and sometimes a get-Y package is fine.
>
> imho it's maintainer's preference, if maintainer is fine to also "support the
> Y-module for X" even if depends on Y and Y is not allowed in mageia, or even
> if Y is in nonfree... it's fine by me.
>
> let's get into specifics:
>
Well here there is no nonfree, demo, shareware, license issue. Just Y is 
yet another media-player. Importing Y is not a case for neiher A nor B.
There is a question to include or not include a module (as an external 
package %{name}-module-mediaplayer_Y) for X. X is working perfectly 
without Y - Y is just adding some extra features. But the module for X 
is NOT working without Y. Well it's probably not breaking X, there will 
be an error message "error loading module-mediaplayer_Y".