[Pkg-octave-devel] Octave Package Meta-Package

[Thomas Weber]

On 18/05/08 14:04 -0400, John W. Eaton wrote:
> On 18-May-2008, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
> 
> | We might consider introducing a debconf question asking something like:
> | 
> |       By installing this package (octave-nan), some core functions
> |       of Octave will be overridden, unless you choose to not 
> |       autoload the functions.
> | 
> |       Should the octave-nan functions be autoloaded (default: Yes)?
> | 
> |                  <Yes>           <No>
> |    
> | This may be an overkill, though.
> 
> Presenting a question like this while installing does not necessarily
> avoid confusion for users.  The installer of the package is not
> necessarily the same person who uses Octave on the system.

That's a very good point indeed. Unfortunately, it also means that
overriding the default using pkg.m by the administrator is pretty
unlikely, unless the administrator has knowledge about Octave himself.

Well, I see only two sensible solutions: don't autoload any package or
autoload them all. Everything else will just bring up confusion: "why is
package X autoloaded and package Y not?".

And again, is there some policy for when a package is marked as
autoloaded?

	Thomas