To Require yelp or not to require yelp

[Michael Schwendt]

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 02:51:37 -0400, Christopher Aillon wrote:

> Hans de Goede wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > 2 days ago I got 4 bugs requesting me to add Requires: yelp to packages 
> > using it for their help system.
> > 
> > So I issued 3 rawhide updates (one bug was a false positive).
> > 
> > However yesterday I received a comment in all 4 bugs to please not 
> > Require yelp ?????
> 
> Here's another way of looking at it: why should 100+ gnome packages 
> require something that should be installed as a base part of GNOME?  If 
> we want to make it a requires, I'd say that gnome-desktop or something 
> ought to require it, not every f-ing package.

What happens if you install the app in KDE, XFCE or a desktop env other
than GNOME? Will the help menu fail silently?

If an application specifically needs yelp (spelled out in its code or
config) it ought to require yelp or give an error dialog if yelp is
missing. If, on the contrary, it only uses yelp via some GNOME component,
there also ought to be an error dialog if yelp is missing.