Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sunday 30 August 2009 18:09:08 Harry Putnam wrote:
> Stroller <stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk> writes:
> > Actually, I think there used to be an mplayer USE flag that behaved in
> > exactly this way - it was associated with RealPlayer &/or their
> > codecs.
> >
> > However I would assume this to be the exception rather than the rule,
> > and one would generally assume that USE="x y z" adds support for x, y,
> > z.
>
> Maybe not all that exceptional... consider the case of users who don't
> run gnome desktop but want certain gnome tools... would they not leave
> gnome at `-gnome'?

You have it wrong.

"USE=<thing>" is supposed to add *support* for <thing>, not necessarily 
*install* something called <thing>. Whatever <thing> means in the context of a 
specific ebuild depends on what the ebuild is for, and different ebuilds with 
the same USE flag may have entirely different DEPEND stanzas, depending on how 
the package is written and what it needs to build/run.

mplayer support for realplayer was a right royal cockup. The only thing it 
could ever have meant was that mplayer could play Real videos. But the way it 
was documented, users couldn't figure out if this would install the binary 
realplayer, provide support for real from some other party, or do an entirely 
different third action.

USE=gnome does not necessarily install all of gnome. That would depend on what 
specific packages using that flag you have installed. They have their own 
DEPENDS, and the sum total of those is what you get if you set the flag. if 
you want certain gnome tools but not the gnome desktop, then you would leave 
USE at -gnome and emerge the gnome tools. Which means that everything else you 
have that could support gnome, will be built without gnome support (with the 
exception of packages written by folk who don't know how to do compile-time 
configuration).

What's so exceptional about that?

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com