Dependancy Hell (was Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: mintty 2.9.9)

[Chris Wagner <wagnerc at plebeian dot com>]

On 2019-03-28 7:36 am, Steven Penny wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Mar 2019 08:34:34, Thomas Wolff wrote:
> > Mintty can be used to run any command-line application directly (like 
> > top, your editor, ...), a shell is not needed.
>
> That may be true, the by default Mintty is configure to load Bash. So 
> it is
> disingenuous so simply say that it does not require a shell, unless you 
> want to
> change the default to load "top" as you said.

I think that part of the issue is that there is no clear definition of a 
dependancy.  I encounter questionable dependancies all the time from 
Cygwin Setup.  If I try to install the wrong thing, there is a whole 
ecosystem of packages that come with it that I don't want.  I just don't 
install that thing I wanted and live without it or get it another way.

Likewise there are dependancies that are merely advisory and the package 
works just fine without it.

I think that a package should only be listed as a dependancy if the 
upstream package will not even run without it.  Things like library 
packages.  Even if it provides core functionality, if the main package 
will run, it's not a dependancy.  Dependancy hell is one of the few 
things I don't like about Cygwin.


Thanks.


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