emacs and /etc/alternatives

[Chip Coldwell]

On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Jesse Keating wrote:

> On Thursday 08 March 2007 16:31:23 Chip Coldwell wrote:
> > I really don't understand the difference between two packages
> >
> > emacs: with GTK+, etc.
> > emacs-nox: without GTK+, etc.
> >
> > and two packages:
> >
> > emacs-gnome: with GTK+, etc.
> > emacs: without GTK+, etc.
> >
> > Aside from the renaming, how is this different from the present
> > situation?
> 
> One would hope that you can do this in such a way that you could 
> install 'emacs' and not drag in gnome, and it would do text mode only, and 
> then install emacs-gnome which gives emacs the ability to do gui.  Perhaps 
> emacs supplies a /usr/bin/emacs script that defaults to /usr/bin/emacs-tui, 
> and if you try to pass it -x it will note the lack of /usr/bin/emacs-gnome 
> and tell you no, but if you install emacs-gnome subpackage, the libraries and 
> deps are then installed and emacs -x would launch the gui emacs.

What you describe reverses the default from GUI to terminal.

Right now: if you install emacs it drags in gtk/gdk/atk/etc, but you
can invoke it with "-nw" and it will run in a terminal.  Or you can
install emacs-nox which does not drag in gtk/gdk/atk/etc, and it will
only run in a terminal.

So is your recommendation rename emacs to emacs-gnome, rename
emacs-nox to emacs, and add a "-x" command line switch to emacs
(renamed from emacs-nox) whose purpose is to emit an error message?

Chip

-- 
Charles M. "Chip" Coldwell
Senior Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc
978-392-2426