[Python-modules-team] Bug#547437: Bug#547437: too broad dependencies

[W. Martin Borgert]

On 2009-09-19 21:42, Sandro Tosi wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 20:36, W. Martin Borgert <debacle at debian.org> wrote:
> > E.g. we use matplotlib in a web application, which is a common
> > use case, so why would we need Tcl/Tk|GTK+|wxGTK|Qt3|Qt4?
>
> Sorry, this won't change. The vast majority of the users of mpl use it
> interactively or with scripts displaying the output on screen.

So this is the perfect case for a Recommends. Policy says: "The
Recommends field should list packages that would be found
together with this one in all but unusual installations."
Recommends are installed by default, so most users don't see any
difference between Depends and Recommends. Please let at least
the minority not install a GUI toolkit, if they don't need one.

E.g. I think about packaging some plugins for Trac (a web based
project managing tool), that depend on matplotlib. I also will
package a software for the analysis of wind data (again web
based), that depends on python-django and on matplotlib. In both
cases installing a GUI toolkit is not necessary. So even if this
is an "unusual" use case, there is no reason to not allow it.