Craig Sanders wrote:
> i agree. in fact, it's more like a solution searching for a problem than
> even a superficial problem.
It's a problem that is only evident to people who haven't lived with it for
years. That doesn't mean it's not a problem.
> from the descriptions that have been posted of how rpm handles
> installing multiple versions of a package, i am *very* glad that debian
> doesn't do anything even remotely similar. that way lies madness (and a
> broken system).
Just because rpm does it wrong doesn't mean dpkg couldn't do it right.
> the following are currently installed on my workstation.
>
> ii libgtk1 1.0.6-2 The GIMP Toolkit set of widgets for X
> ii libgtk1.1 1.1.2-2 The GIMP Toolkit set of widgets for X,
> unsta
> ii libgtk1.1.11 1.1.11-1 The GIMP Toolkit set of widgets for X,
> unsta
> ii libgtk1.1.12 1.1.12-1 The GIMP Toolkit set of widgets for X,
> unsta
> ii libgtk1.1.12-de 1.1.12-1 Development files for the GIMP Toolkit,
> unst
> ii libgtk1.1.12-do 1.1.12-1 Documentation for the GIMP Toolkit,
> unstable
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By the way, this also illistrates another facet of the problem. Dpkg wasn't
even designed with package names this long in mind.
> debian's way of handling this allows for all versions of libgtk to be
> installed simultaneously, allowing progress AND backwards compatibility
> without conflict.
And there's no reason installing multiple versions of a package and using
versioned dependancies and conflicts wouldn't allow the same things.
> BTW, this is only a "problem" because the upstream libgtk1.1.x changes
> the programming interface without changing the .so number. they've got
> valid reasons for doing so (and they do advertise that fact), so there's
> really no need to come up with a general solution to a specific problem
> with one or two unstable/rapid development upstream packages.
>
> as soon as libgtk stabilises, the problem will go away of it's own
> accord. in the meantime, we can live with a few extra packages in our
> unstable dist.
This isn't just something that affects a few developmental packages. It
affects packages like these:
libc5
libc6
procmeter
procmeter3
ncftp
ncftp2
gimp
gimp1
communicator-base-406
communicator-base-407
communicator-base-45
By my crude count there are over 300 packages like these in the distribution
that have to mangle their names to differentiate versions.
--
see shy jo
