[[ shouldn't this be on tech-pkg despite the fact you're approaching the
issue from the point of view of a NetBSD/sparc user? ]]

[ On Saturday, October 19, 2002 at 11:59:52 (+0100), Andrew Grillet wrote: ]
> Subject: pkgsrc
>
> Am I alone in thinking that pkgsrc is a fine concept, but in need of 
> being partitioned.
> 
> As an owner of older Sparcs, with limited size HDs, I for one would like
> to see pkgsrc split into at least two, and perhaps 3  - 

I'm not sure that's practical (i.e. actually splitting pkgsrc into
multiple parts), though perhaps with just a simple set of configuration
flags much of it could be handled transparently internatlly.

> textmode apps that will run on almost all architectures
> 
> apps that require X - since they are normally large and
> require fast hardware (compared to a 25MHx ipc. anyway).
> Maybe this aught to be "require graphics mode".
> 
> apps that are really only x86 - or PCI or something else
> that effectively rules out operation on the majority of architectures.

Indeed there are some packages which have X11 as an option (i.e. they
have some X11 tool that's not necessarily part of their core
functionality).  Some are already handled by offering separate package
modules which build without the X11 feature, but I'm sure more could be
handled this way too.  (eg. I just submitted a PR for catdoc to show
that it can be built and be useful without TCL/Tk and thus without X11)

Alternately having one /etc/mk.conf flag that simply turned off the use
of X11 in those packages might be a lot easier than trying to figure out
what package variant one should use to avoid the necessity for X11 stuff.

I think I rambled about this kind of configuration choice on tech-pkg
just the other day too! ;-)

> I would also like to see a global flag HAS_AUDIO in make.conf
> such that if it is not set, apps like KDE do not include masses
> of dependencies on audio software. None of my PCs have
> working audio, and I cant see this being fixed in the forseable
> future.  The audio in my Suns may work, but I have never tried it!

This is more or less what I was rambling about on tech-pkg the other
day.  I think turning audio support off completely should just be one of
the options on a more flexible control flag that lets you choose the
type of audio support to be applied across the board, eg. "esound"
vs. "nas", vs. "dev" (for direct /dev/audio), etc. and turning it right
off would just be "none".

(that does beg the question of what "none" should do for a package
that's specifically and only an audio app.  Should it just cause a
warning to be printed and then build with whatever default makes the
most sense for that package on that NetBSD port?)

> I see no need need for audio on Firewalls, fileservers,
> nameservers

well if it has a loud enough speaker you can use audio capability so
that your IDS can shout verbal warnings when the firewall is under
apparent attack!  ;-)

> or any computer used in a work environment.

If co-workers might be annoyed by noisy computers then those who want
their noise^H^H^H^Hsounds can/should wear headphones.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

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