On Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:38:32 -0600
Joe Peterson <lavajoe@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Marius Mauch wrote:
> > If it's only used to indicate that the package doesn't install any
> > files I'd suggest to use 'empty' or 'nocontents' instead. 'virtual'
> > somehow implies that it's only applicable to packages in the
> > 'virtual' category, which isn't the case with the given definition
> > (as you said).
> 
> I like "virtual", since it really gets at the spirit of what the
> ebuild does. "empty" sounds like it does nothing at all, and
> "nocontents" sounds that way to, to me.

Except it doesn't. A virtual ebuild:

* installs nothing
* does nothing
* should be treated as being very quickly installable
* should be treated as having zero cost for installs

The property proposed corresponds to only the last of these.

> An analogy to "virtual" is a virtual method in OO programming - it
> sits at a high level, does nothing in itself, but causes underlying
> methods to perform the work.

Virtual methods in OO can do lots. You're thinking 'pure virtual' or
'abstract'.

-- 
Ciaran McCreesh