Re: [gentoo-dev] USE="gui"

[hasufell <hasufell@gentoo.org>]

On 09/11/2015 08:03 PM, Ian Stakenvicius wrote:
> 
> So, IUSE="X" has generally been used for gui, but more technically
> it's used to depend on and build against x11-libs/* packages.  The
> fact that this gives a GUI is practically a side-effect.  When
> wayland comes along, do these packages still build against
> x11-libs/* to support wayland?
> 
> I'm just wondering if we're jumping the gun a little bit on
> IUSE="gui"..  yes it'll be nice to have one flag that "just works"
> for anyone not caring about the details, but it'll also mean
> propagating a slew of REQUIRED_USE=" {X,wayland,gtk,qt4,qt5}? ( gui
> )" entries and a lot of extra use-defaults which may or may not
> cleanup the sub-profiles of desktop/ ....
> 
> Also, I believe we need to have the conversation about the pros and
> cons of IUSE=gui here before the council meeting, yes?
> 


I already use IUSE=gui and will keep doing that.

USE flags in gentoo are the best and the worst thing at the same time.
They are also mostly the main reason people don't like gentoo, because
USE flags are (for todays situation) pretty much not an appropriate
pattern to reflect real-world configuration. To be more precise... USE
flags are first-class citizens and there is only one layer of them.
There's not configuration pattern/abstraction behind them. If you wonder
what I am talking about, have a look at NixOS. The reason we lack proper
declarative configuration is also the reason we had to introduce this
ugliness called REQUIRED_USE. Instead of saying "gui.gtk" we say
"REQUIRED_USE="gui? ( || (  gtk ... ) )". And it will get worse. I
wonder when people start realizing that.