Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: new local USE var: vim-with-x

[Aron Griffis <agriffis@gentoo.org>]

Hi Björn,

Björn Lindström wrote:	[Mon Apr 28 2003, 09:16:44PM EDT]
> This is really ugly. The expected behaviour would doubtlessly be that
> USE=X means that vim will have X support.
> 
> Wouldn't using X combined with a suitable ewarning be better?

Unfortunately I think you are wrong.  Most users that I have encountered
do not expect "emerge vim" to pull in xfree, even when USE=X.  This is a
very frequently asked question on IRC and in the mailing lists.

Here is the history of the behavior in the vim ebuild:

1. The original vim ebuilds had "X? ( x11-base/xfree )".  This confused
   a lot of users who did not expect their first action of "emerge vim"
   to also demand xfree.  Adding warnings is not really sufficient since
   the damage has been done when they hit enter; portage will start with
   the first dependency in the list, not with the vim ebuild itself.

2. The next solution was to leave xfree out of DEPEND.  In this case,
   USE=X was honored, but only if xfree was already merged on the
   system.  This is clearly wrong since it has a dependency on the
   environment which is not controlled by the ebuild.  As a resuilt,
   some users would have one thing and other users would have another.

3. Next, I changed vim to refrain from linking against X altogether, on
   the assumption that the gvim ebuild would bu sufficient for users
   wanting an X-linked ebuild.

4. Finally, I made the behavior dependent on a local USE var, trying to
   capture the expectations of the typical user, while providing an
   escape route for those particular users who want a vim linked against
   the X libraries.  Keep in mind this is not a gui version of vim (that
   is provided by the gvim ebuild), it's just the particular bits that
   allow X interaction while in a terminal.  For example, xterm title
   setting, X clipboard support for vim selections, and moving the
   cursor using the mouse.  I have seen very few users that demand those
   particular features from vim, so it doesn't make sense to me to give
   the vim ebuild such a heavy dependency.

> ...or perhaps ignoring USE=X and use USE=gtk(2?) and possibly USE=kde
> instead?

I find it hard to believe that would be an improvement.  The vim ebuild
clearly doesn't depend on those toolkits; they're used by the gvim
ebuild.  No user is going to have a clue that USE=kde is causing their
console vim ebuild to pull in xfree...

Thanks for your suggestions.  If you can convince me there's a better
way than what I've done, I'll gladly consider making the change in the
ebuild.  :-)

Aron

--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list