[gst-devel] Re: GStreamer package explosion

[Dave Baker]

On Wed, 16 May 2001, David I. Lehn wrote:

> I'm packaging GStreamer (http://gstreamer.net/).  It has a somewhat
> small core but also a very large number of plugin wrappers for various
> libraries.

[snip]

> the core and not required if users/apps don't need them.  

> After I add support for recent additions of SDL and gnomevfs plugins the
> total package count will be close to 30!

[snip]

> So my question: is this package explosion acceptable?

Hi.

My opinion only - 30 and growing is too large.  Group the plugins by type
if possible.  I might prefer to download a little more if I use it than
have everyone else suffer through Packages.gz bloat that doesn't use it.

The kernel-* packages, with their multitude of versions, patches,
revisions, etc, only come to a shade over 60 packages on my system....

Just a thought ... have the official debian packages be groups fairly
broadly and set up an independent apt-source with more fine grained
control?  (Perhaps not a very GOOD thought, but it's one way to solve both
problems of flexibility and lessening impact on the majority - opinions
from the peanut gallery??).


Dave