I'm using edgy and according to the apt database, r-base depends of r -base-core, which depends of gcc (>= 4.1.0) and libgfortran1 (>= 4.1.0), not g77.
After a bit more digging, I found out that the only package that needs GCC 3.4 is r-cran-mgcv, which depends of atlas3-base and libgfortran. atlas3-base depends of libg2c0, which depends of GCC 3.4. So there's your dependency. In the end it seems that R lists GCC 3.4 as a requirement because the package r-base-core lists the r-recommended package as a requirement instead of recommended. Because of that decision, whoever wishes to install R must install another version of GCC just because a single non- vital, potentially unnecessary package needs it to run. If anyone fixes that single dependency then the need for GCC 3.4 simply vanishes for the vast majority of Edgy R users. -- the R package depends of GCC 3.4 https://launchpad.net/bugs/70251 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
