[pkg-boost-devel] Bug#588608: aptitude (priority important) depends on libboost-iostreams (priority optional)

[Frans Pop]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> This manual represents the opinion of a single developer.

And what does that have to do with the price of bananas in Iceland?

The fact that aptitude is currently the recommended tool for package 
management has various reasons: user interface, features, dependency 
handling, etc. That status has evolved over the last 3 or so release 
cycles. You have even been part of some of the discussions (for example 
sarge -> etch upgrade issues)

aptitude is the primary tool used by Debian Installer (and because of that 
its current priority of "important" is actally necessary). It is also 
recommended in both the Release Notes (for stable release upgrades) and 
the Installation Guide.

So what's listed in the "Debian Reference" is a correct reflection of 
aptitude's current status and not, as you imply, the result of some single 
developer being on crack.

The growing dependency chain of aptitude *is* of some concern and may be 
reason to re-evaluate its role, but in no way does that change its 
_current_ status.

Cheers,
FJP