[Pkg-tcltk-devel] Bug#516178: Bug#516178: please provide an 8.5 version of tcl and tk metapackage

[Francesco P. Lovergine]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 01:02:26AM +0800, darren wrote:
> Package: tk
> Version: 8.5.6-1
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> 
> please provide an 8.5 version of tcl and tk metapackage.
> related bugs #503113 and #515325 in which user reported that
> gitk should depend on tk instead of tk8.5,it seems more
> reasonable,but since there's no tk(8.5) metapackage,user can
> not choose tk between 8.5 and 8.4.Xft fonts and widhet themes, 
> which arent available in 8.4 makes gitk really ugly.
> 

The current Tcl/Tk policy is quite clear about that.
Packages should depend on 

tk (>= 8.5)

iff the minimal version is _required_. Having a working
but ugly interface does not justify a strict versioning
in this case. The aim of this approach is allowing to
migrate tk default version to 8.6 or what ever without
having to rebuild all rdepends to have something like

tk8.5 | tk8.6 | ...

for ever as in the past. Version independency has its cost.
You have to cohexist with a possible ugly interface
or the package could suggest using a minimal
version in its documentation for an optimal aspect. 
BTW, tk-tile is available with 8.4 and it
is functionally equivalent to the new tkk:: package. 

Those issues will be solved during squeeze release
anyway when tcl/tk will move to 8.5 default.

-- 
Francesco P. Lovergine