Jim Penny wrote: > Why? Could you better explain your reasoning here? > On the face of it, it certainly seems that python-1.5 ought to be > able to provide python-api-1.5.
It breaks dependencies. We've been through this before but I'll explain it again. Here's a dependency graph: /--------------------------------------------\ spam -- > python (2.1) \---> python-eggs ---> python-api-2.1 ---/ The spam program is portable between Python versions. Now, if we upgrade python to 2.2 and have a python-2.1 package that provides python-api-2.1 we have the following broken dependency graph: /-------------------------------------------> python (2.2) spam -- \---> python-eggs ---> python-api-2.1 ---> python-2.1 We can try to fix this by putting the version in the module package names as well (this is what Donovan and other people have been suggesting). First we have: /-------------------------------------> python ---\ spam -- > python-2.1 \---> python-eggs ---> python-eggs-2.1 -----------/ The python is a small package to create a link from /usr/bin/python2.2 to /usr/bin/python. python-eggs is a dummy package for dependencies (similar to what is done for GCC). When we upgrade Python to 2.2 we have: /-------------------------------------> python ---> python-2.2 spam -- \---> python-eggs ---> python-eggs-2.1 -----------> python-2.1 The dependencies are still broken. We could have: /------------------------------------------------\ spam -- > python-2.1 \--------------------> python-eggs-2.1 ----------/ That makes spam dependent on the version of Python installed. Perhaps I'm missing some detail of Donovan's plan. Neil