On Sun, 21 Sep 2003, Daniel B. wrote: > Per the The American Heritage Dictionary (via > http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dependency), a dependency > is: > ... > 2. Something dependent or subordinate. > ... > > That is, if A depends on B, A is a dependency of B. (B is not a > dependency of A.)
Definition #1 for Dependency is 'Dependence'. Which is defined as 1. The state of being dependent, as for support. So if package A requires some supporting functionality from package B then 'A has a dependence on B' - which is also correctly said as 'A has a dependency for B'. Consider a commonly heard phrase today: 'Jack depends on drugs', 'Jack has a drug dependency', 'Jack is dependent on drugs', 'Jack has dependency on drugs'. 'Package: jack\n Depends: drugs'. In this case, your example results in something very odd indeed - 'Jack is a dependency of drugs' but 'Drugs are not a dependency of Jack' Which is clearly not the expected meaning of 'Jack depends on drugs'. You might say 'Drugs are a dependency of Jack's' however.. Then again, I am not an English major. Jason