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On Sat, Aug 21, 2004 at 08:52:24PM -0400, Michael Sterrett -Mr. Bones.- wrote: |
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> The "doc" USE flag isn't for installing basic docs for a package - |
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> those should already be part of a normal merge. The doc use flag is for |
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> installing "extra" documentaion of any kind. Making the installation of |
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> examples dependent on the "doc" use flag is perfectly fine. I don't see |
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> that adding an extra use flag specifically for examples as a good idea. |
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In java, we have many libraries that are a few hundred kb, that come with |
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multiple megabytes of generated documentation, that you will only need if |
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you're a Java developer, and usually not even then. |
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Also, as javadoc is a memory hog, generating the documentation may be |
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prohibitive on older machines. |
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For this reason, we have opted for not installing API documentation by |
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default. |
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In addition, some packages come with even bigger examples, that, as I pointed |
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out, may be full-fledged applications on their own. Even only a small |
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percentage of Java developers would every want to bother about that, but they |
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may very well want to have the API docs. |
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Hence, we have a very real need to separate between docs and examples. |
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Even though 'examples' may never turn up as a global USE flag, I'm pretty |
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confident that we'll add it to a good many packages maintained by the Java |
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herd as a local USE flag in the not-so-distant future. |
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-- Karl T |
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