[packagekit] Semantic issues with GetDeps (and other interface functions)

[Richard Hughes]

On 04/09/07, Matthias Clasen <matthias.clasen at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/4/07, Ken VanDine <ken at vandine.org> wrote:
> > About the getDeps questions... IMO I think the whole concept of
> > showing the user the deps doesn't align with the vision of PackageKit,
> > at least my interpretation of the vision.  My 75 year old mom isn't
> > gonna care what the deps are at all... she just knows she wants to
> > play nibbles.  I would vote to remove the deps stuff all together and
> > let the backend attempt to do the right thing, raising an error if it
> > can't.
> >
>
> I concur. Leaving dependencies out of the ui for now would be good.
> The term will be meaningless to the target audience anyway...

The only reason there is GetDeps is for calculating what needs to be
downloaded before it's done. This is useful if:

Install openoffice:

Show UI: "27 other packages need to be downloaded before OpenOffice
can be installed. <Details> [okay] [cancel]"

If we don't need the UI for installing then we need it for:

"Removing Java will remove 7 other packages on your system <details>
[okay] [cancel]"

So basically is is the same logic  as the install state, only without
the installing.

So I think we need the methods, i just don't think they need to have
options and be configurable like was suggested in this thread.

Richard.