[Pkg-fonts-devel] ttf-lang-* virtual packages

[Adeodato Simó]

* Adrian von Bidder [Mon, 20 Mar 2006 19:37:15 +0100]:

> Yo over there on d-policy!

> Explanation: we're discussing how to better organize fonts in Debian.  One 
> idea is to use virtual packages to have fonts specify their supported 
> charsets and/or languages in a ttf-lang-* and/or ttf-charset-* virtual 
> package name space.  Amongst others, the ability of input methods to 
> recommend (or depend?) on proper fonts was mentioned as an advantage of 
> this.

> On Sunday 19 March 2006 09:06, Christian Perrier wrote:
> > We request for the creation of virtual packages named
> > ttf-lang-<langname> so that all font packages that are targeted for
> > the supprot of a given language can add a "Provides" on the relevant
> > virtual package(s).

> > The only drawback here is that virtual packages creation is a process
> > that is quite precisely defined in
> > http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/virtual-package-names-list.tx
> >t and we would need to request for the creation of *a lot* of virtual
> > packages...:-)

> Well,  I guess we need input from the policy gods here ;-)

  Depending on your use case, formally requesting such virtual packages
  may not be needed. From Policy 3.6:

     All packages should use virtual package names where appropriate, and
     arrange to create new ones if necessary.  They should not use virtual
     package names (except privately, amongst a cooperating group of
     packages) unless they have been agreed upon and appear in the list of
     virtual package names.  (See also Section 7.4, `Virtual packages -
     `Provides'')

  So if the set of packages that would need to depend or recommend a
  ttf-lang-foo (or whatever name is finally picked) is reduced and
  somehow related, this can probably be considered "cooperation".

  Just for reference, here are some statistics (generated with the
  attached script):

    Number of virtual packages defined in Policy: 73
    Number virtual packages provided in the archive (i386): 1611
    Number of v.p. defined in Policy and provided in the archive: 62
    Number of v.p. defined in Policy but not provided in the archive: 11
    Number of v.p. NOT defined in Policy but provided in the archive: 1549

  HTH,

-- 
Adeodato Simó                                     dato at net.com.org.es
Debian Developer                                  adeodato at debian.org
 
As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
                -- Josh Billings
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