However, shoehorning X-is-X to apt for replacing alternatives is a very unoptimal (and even backwards) approach, because it’s not only for simple applications. Some of the daily alternatives I see are:
- x-www-Browser - java (and the whole toolchain) - editor - vi - pager … The list goes on and on. Alternatives provides a very elegant and usable way for handling multiple installed applications. Yet it adds a bit of packaging overhead, but it’s not that complicated, and is one of the neat parts of Debian. I think it’s fine as-is, and it’s an essential part of machinery for Debian. If there are some shortcomings, which I failed to bump into while working with it, it can be improved, but I’m very against of its removal. Cheers, Hakan > On 24 Dec 2023, at 12:06, Gioele Barabucci <gio...@svario.it> wrote: > > On 24/12/23 08:54, Alastair McKinstry wrote: >>> While we are on the topic of alternatives, I hope to see the >>> maintscript-based /etc/alternatives paradigm deprecated in favor of the >>> package-based X-is-X paradigm introduced by `python-is-python3`. >>> >> They have different use-cases. alternatives allows for co-installability >> (and importantly - co-"buildability" with dependencies). the X-is-X >> guarantees essentially the opposite. > > I don't see X-is-X as a different use case when it comes to applications: > both gnupg and sq-chameleon-gnupg could be installed at the same time. > > After the installation there would be no /usr/bin/gpg. Once the user > installs, say, ggp-is-gnupg then /usr/bin/gpg will point to > /usr/bin/gpg-gnupg. Users (and scripts) are still free to install the other > package and use /usr/bin/gpg-sq. The only Conflicts: here would be between > gpg-is-gnupg and gpg-is-sq-chameleon. > > Regards, > > -- > Gioele Barabucci >