On 03/06/16 21:13, Alan McKinnon wrote: > Walter, > > I think you're missing where the devs want to take this and what USE > is all about. It's about *features*, not about dependencies. > > USE="gtk" is a dependency. > USE="gui" is a feature. > You only need enable a specific graphics lib flag when there is > ambiguity about what "gui" means for a package. > <snip> > Most apps support one toolkit, often either gtk2/3 or qt4/5. It's a > minority that support both and we have special means to handle those. > For that small set of apps that do support several toolkits, what > exactly are you going to force? If you can have one of gtk 2 or 3 but > not both, which one is it? Well you'd need a USE="gtk2" or USE="gtk3" > to find out what the user wants. > > This proposal makes things simpler and reduces flags and their usage. > "gui" means build the gui the thing supports. > "X" stops meaning "gui" or maybe "XLibs" or perhaps "usually RDP but > also supports magic X11" and starts to mean "X11 Window System" as > opposed to Wayland or Mir. > The other toolkit flags start to mean specific versions of toolkits > and only need be used when things get ambiguous and portage wants you > you tell it what you want. > > In short, flags will get simpler (as cruft will be removed) and flags > gain clearer distinct names. Think of it as a code refactor after > years of accumulating rubbish due to no clear plan. > > Alan > > > +1, thanks for the sensible explanation.
I guess it's going to take a while to push the update through the tree, but I think the clarification is useful where other USE flags have been previously abused ... use flag abuse is bad generally !
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