[tex-live] Feature request: "package dependency" field on CTAN

[Petra Ruebe-Pugliese]

Hello Hironobu Yamashita,

thanks for this suggestion:

On Saturday 12 November 2016 at 12:54:41 +0900  Hironobu Yamashita (h.y.acetaminophen at gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> I'd like to request a new feature to CTAN package submission system,
> that is "package dependency" entry field.
> 
 [...]
> 
> Of course the package authors can describe its dependency in README
> or something, but it would be better if CTAN adds a new generic
> form field to encourage the authors to do that in more explicit way.
> It would be even better if TeX Live can import the dependency tree
> automatically;)

 I agree that a system to describe dependencies would
 be an extremely useful thing to have.

 However, starting with an additional input field on the upload
 page would not solve that problem, from our point of view,
 because the question would remain of what to do with the
 additional information thus gained, i.e. where and how to
 store it.

 For CTAN, the answer to the last question would probably
 be quite clear:  introduce a new, optional, "depends" element
 for Catalogue entries.   I think we should discuss this
 internally.  Personally, I cannot find anything to say against
 it, exept that it must be understood that these can only be
 _hints_; we will never be able to provide a complete
 classification of all > 5000 Catalogue entries with respect
 to dependencies. 

 Once we would have that new Catalogue field, and the
 corresponding _output_ on the webpage, the _input_ question
 could be solved in a more or less formalized way.
 "Announcement text" and "notes to maintainers" would be
 sufficient, IMHO, but that's a secondary question.

    Just my 2cents
        Petra

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