* Andreas Hanke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [Jul 14. 2006 17:13]: > Hi, > > Andreas Jaeger schrieb: > > * Patterns define a functionality the system should have. > > This is indeed a currently missing feature. But it would be nice to have > a more abstract definition of "functionality" - for example, a pattern > should be able to say "the user needs a PDF viewer" and not "the user > needs xpdf".
Agreed. "pdf viewer" is the pattern, "xpdf" is the package. Patterns are meant to be an abstraction from packages. So having a "xpdf" pattern is certainly wrong, "pdf viewer" is the right pattern name. > > Currently, when selecting GNOME during installation and using the Add-On > product, I get three PDF viewers: xpdf from the base X selection, evince > from the GNOME selection and acroread from the Add-On product. Parts of that are already implemented and working. > > Packages could provide a virtual symbol describing their functionality, > every desktop-related pattern should require this virtual symbol and the > package manager should be able to decide which one of the > available alternatives matches the selected pattern in the best way. Thats probably too much work for package maintainers. And for most functionalities, there is typically a single 'preferred' implementation (== package) and possible alternative implementation. For the functionality mail-transfer-agent, 'postfix' is (currently) the preferred and 'sendmail', 'qmail', etc. are the alternative implementations. But the package-pattern relation is expressed in the pattern, not in the package. For user environments, things are a bit more complicated. The functionality "mailer" might be 'mutt' for the console, 'kmail' for KDE, and 'evolution' for GNOME. The 'mail program' pattern depends on the choosen user environment and must be calculated. The current pattern implementation supports this already. Klaus --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
