Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Ciaran McCreesh <ciaran.mccreesh@××××××××××.com>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Re: [RFC] PROPERTIES=virtual for meta-packages (clarification of definition)
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:30:55
Message-Id: 20080831133044.4ed4bc5f@googlemail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-dev] Re: Re: [RFC] PROPERTIES=virtual for meta-packages (clarification of definition) by Steve Long
1 On Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:29:16 +0100
2 Steve Long <slong@××××××××××××××××××.uk> wrote:
3 > > Except that that's not what it's being used to mean. It's being
4 > > used to mean "the cost of selecting this when doing dependency
5 > > resolution cost analysis is zero", which is an entirely different
6 > > thing.
7 > >
8 > So it's zero-resolution-cost now?
9
10 No, the overall cost in resolution is potentially non-zero. But the
11 cost of selecting it for an install when resolving it is zero.
12
13 > Yes, that *is* different (although
14 > I'd use free-resolve. "free" is well understood as often meaning
15 > "zero-cost," which isn't a phrase most English-speaking people use.
16 > It only has meaning within the PROPERTIES variable, so it's not going
17 > to clash with anything.)
18
19 free means lots of things.
20
21 > > Users don't need to see it. Heck, most developers don't need to see
22 > > it.
23 > >
24 > Well any dev using it will do, and I believe most of them start out as
25 > users. Anyone reading the ebuild will see it, and the fact that it's a
26 > well-understood term, within Gentoo at least[2], makes it easier for
27 > the PM user-base to work with.
28
29 virtual is a well-understood term that does not mean what the property
30 being discussed will mean.
31
32 > It's a cultural "people understand this already" point as opposed to a
33 > technical make-it-as-explicit-as-we-can one.
34
35 And with this 'understanding' comes lots of misconceptions about what
36 it means. 'virtual' implies lots of things that this property does not.
37
38 --
39 Ciaran McCreesh

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