[Pkg-crosswire-devel] Module dependencies

[Peter von Kaehne]

And while I am impressed by your dedication to package our 300 + (and
rising) modules I simply do not see the point. And yes the Arabic module
has driven the issue home for me and nailed it, but that was only the
reason to think the matter through, not the reason as such to reject
packaging of modules.

A module is a text. An e-book of sorts.

Our software are dedicated e-book readers. Any e-book of a particular
format (or rather a group of formats)

A Sword module is not a programme library a a la CPAN etc.

It is not data like a game episode (a la Wesnoth).

It is not a plugin a la firefox addon.

The closest to it as far as examples in the repositories go are ebooks
readable by  gutenbrowser. I do not see anyone considering packaging
their 50.000 books.

Other - equally valid examples are

- yelp - reader for gnome specific docbook-xml texts
- evince - reader for PDF files.

Are you packaging docbook files just so that someone who downloads yelp
has something to read? (Ok bad example they come along even if no yelp
is there) Are you packaging a couple of interesting standard PDFs? Or a
few HTML files so that lynx, firefox and friends do not feel bored?

This is what you are suggesting with regard to packaging of our modules.

Both BT and GS open up on first time with a dialogue - "you got no
modules, shall I fetch a couple" so there is no risk that anyone is
module less for long.

We have an elaborate module manager which can deal with a whole range of
install options, can update modules from a variety of sources and can
deal with multiple, dynamically added and removed repositories. Apt-get
gets into the way and for no good reason.

Peter