[Pkg-tcltk-devel] Bug#1075832: tk-html3: Completely remove hv3 (and tk-html3), for good reasons

[Boyuan Yang]

Source: tk-html3
Severity: serious
Version: 3.0~fossil20110109-9
X-Debbugs-CC: olebole at debian.org

Dear Debian tk-html3/hv3 package maintainers,

Today I encountered a discussion around package hv3 in Debian. With some brief
investigation, I found some abnormally high popcon values [2] for hv3 and tk-html3,
which is alarming since this software saw no upstream development since 2011 and
definitely shall not see so many installations. My current thought is that it may
have been accidentally introduced due to Provides: www-browser somewhere (e.g., with
Debian XFCE installer as a default www-browser provider), but I haven't really dig into
it.

By all means, I believe tk-html3/hv3 shall not linger in Debian archive anymore in 2024.
Especially since hv3 is a web browser, having an outdated web browser is especially
problematic. Ubuntu also had the concensus [3] back in 2022.

If you agree, please submit a RM bug against Debian FTP Masters to remove the source
package. If you find this source package still useful, please consider dropping
the hv3 binary package. At the very very least -- dropping the Provides: www-browser
from hv3 could help if you don't want to remove anything at all.

I don't see any reverse dependencies or reverse build-dependencies around tk-html3
(build-deps(1) seems to be reporting false positives), so the removal shall be
harmless and beneficial.

Please let me know if you have any comments. Thanks!

Best Regards,
Boyuan Yang


[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/1dw2yk8/hv3_web_browser/
[2] https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=tk-html3
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tk-html3/+bug/1982578
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 858 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-tcltk-devel/attachments/20240705/89bcfffd/attachment.sig>