Subject: Re: Bug#3795: ae should not be essential

From: Dale Scheetz <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 10:24:37 -0400 (EDT)

On Tue, 16 Jul 1996, Ian Jackson wrote:

> Package: ae
> version: 962-8
> 
> As discussed on debian-devel just now, this package should not be
> marked with `Essential: yes'.  A system can function perfectly happily
> without it.
> 
I don't see this discussion, but knowing that you do your mail in batch
mode, I can imagine that "now" could be as much as a week ago ;-)

It was my understanding that the reason for the Essential rating was that
this is the "only?" editor provided by the base package (actually I think
sed is also in the base package, but some don't think of it as an editor).
Is this not sufficient for it's Essential status?

Thanks,

Dwarf

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From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 96 20:07 BST

Dale Scheetz writes ("Re: Bug#3795: ae should not be essential"):
...
> mode, I can imagine that "now" could be as much as a week ago ;-)

:-).

> Is this not sufficient for it's Essential status?

That's good enough for Required (which is just a classification in
dselect), but not IMO for Essential.

After all, if I install emacs or nvi I have no need of ae and the ae
package shouldn't prevent me from using it.  Even if I have no other
editor I can reinstall ae if I need to.

Ian.