[tex-live] beamer dependencies

[Karl Berry]

    when uploading a package to CTAN, is there a way how specify the
    dependencies in a machine parsable way?

No.

And, as I and others have written (many many times) before, and as
exemplified by David's latest answer, there is a theoretical
problem. Package A often loads package B [recurse here] only if some
option is set. So B should not be listed as a hard requirement of A;
whether B is needed is only known at *runtime*. No static analysis of
TeX programs is going to be useful.

Therefore, as I've also said many times before, I think dynamic loading
of packages a la MiKTeX is the only robust mechanism. Unfortunately,
barring some capable and committed new volunteer (Norbert and I have
asked for such plenty of times, with [unsurprisingly] zero response), I
don't see it happening in TL. -k