Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 22:48:47 -0700 (PDT) From: <jkoshy@FreeBSD.org> To: Ian Hutchinson <hutch@psfc.mit.edu> Cc: ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: TtH Description Correction Request Message-ID: <199907050548.WAA69607@freefall.freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 04 Jul 1999 22:35:15 -0400." <378019E3.48EF1ADC@psfc.mit.edu>
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Ian, > I want to ask that you correct the list of programs that you say > TtH "requires": > 'Requires: XFree86-3.3.3.1, ghostscript-5.10, gsfonts-5.10, jpeg-6b, > netpbm-94.3.1, png-1.0.3, teTeX-0.4, tiff-3.4b37' > > In point of fact, TtH "requires" none of the programs you list. > It will use some of them [but never XFree or tiff] in some situations if > they are available. But it is one of the strengths of TtH that it DOES > NOT require this other stuff, [unlike some of the competing LaTeX > translators]. Therefore your list gives a completely false impression, > which I ask you to correct. This could be considered both a 'bug' and a 'feature' in our package system. Since packages are pre-compiled and ready to install, there is a tendency among port skeleton creators to include the maximum possible functionality. This can be viewed as a bug because it unnecessarily adds bloat to the packages. As an example, installing KDE used to (and still does I think) pull in MESA (OpenGL) libraries, because one of the screensavers that was bundled in the KDE package uses OpenGL! Now, dependencies are computed transitively, so the final dependency list for a large package can be really surprising. Some folks prefer the maximum possible functionality, of course, and don't mind the extra disk space used up. Note also that these 'false' dependencies are only an issue if you want to install the pre-packaged binaries of the ported software. When you building a port from scratch, then you get full control over all dependencies. So, in summary, it isn't TtH per-se that requires all these dependencies, but the pre-compiled FreeBSD package that requires them. If the user wants a lighter version of TtH, or a version that is customized in a way different from the pre-built one, then he or she is encouraged to actually build the port, using the port skeleton provided. This is really simple, and in most cases just involves: $ cvs checkout tth [...cvs output elided...] $ cd tth $ make [...make output elided, make will fetch the necessary tarballs, patch and build them...] $ sudo make install Regards, Koshy <jkoshy@freebsd.org> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message
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