"Sean 'Shaleh' Perry" wrote: > > I maintain the xtide package. Currently, it's not a pristine > > package: I add harmonics data to the package that are otherwise > > downloaded manually from the author's web site (it was packaged > > this way when I adopted it). Since the xtide software itself and > > the harmonics data are updated independently by the author, I > > want to split off the package into the software and a supporting > > data package. This will allow: > > > > splitting seems useful given your situation
Glad you agree. > > 2- Create `xtide' and `xtide-data' with xtide _depending_ on > > xtide-data. > > > > Advantages: > > - Casual user might do `apt-get install xtide', try it and > > see a working package. > > > > Disavantages: > > - Users that want to download data separately would have a > > problem. > > - Users that want to install xtide-data and trim it down (as > > described above) could not purge the package, but would > > need to put the package on hold instead. > > > if the program needs this data to run, a depends make sense. > As you said, they can put it on hold and thus only get hit with > a large download every now and then. Ok. > Your other option is to create a small subset of the data and > include it in the main package and let the rest be in the -data > package. This way they can at least sample the package. Ah! Now I'm very glad I asked! This could be a really nice solution. I just might do this. Seems very reasonable, especially to let users sample the program without a huge download. Thanks! Peter
