Re: Using python + pygtk in Desktop modules (was Re: Revisitingthe Gnome Bindings)

[Ross Burton <ross burtonini com>]

> No packaging system that I am aware of handles situations like Python's
> (or the kernels, or GStreamer's, or any other framework's) either.
> Namely, say you have the framework package of a particular version
> installed; python-2.3.  And then you have a versioned library installed
> for this framework; say, pygtk-2.3-2.4.  (pygtk 2.4 for python 2.3)  Now
> an upgrade of python comes along to 2.4.  The system should see that to
> install python 2.4, you need the matching pygtk-2.4-2.4 package in order
> to make sure all apps keep working.  No packaging system can do this,
> however.  Just like pretty much every packaging system will let you
> upgrade your kernel without requiring you to upgrade any drivers you
> have installed, potentially going so far as to cause the new kernel to
> not even boot.

Sounds like the Debian python packaging policy to me.

For example, python2.3 is the interpreter, python2.3-gtk2 is the GTK+
bindings.  Add a number of meta packages for the default version of
python ("python" deps on python2.3, python-gtk2 on python2.3-gtk2, etc)
and you have applications which can depend on "python, python-gtk" and
carry on working as python is upgraded.

Ross
-- 
Ross Burton                                 mail: ross burtonini com
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