[pkg-fgfs-crew] FlightGear package improvements

[Chris Baines]

On Mon, 2011-01-24 at 23:37 +0100, Ove Kaaven wrote:
> Hi Chris.
> 
> Since the flightgear 2.0 package is now in Debian unstable (since I
> finally got around to it), it may be time to look at ways to improve it.
> I know you've had a few patches.
> 
> Of course, an important problem may be how to ensure that users actually
> get the aircraft and models they're going to need to start FlightGear.
> You've had concerns that users may want to be able to install their own
> versions of the aircraft and models (perhaps with TerraSync), which is
> part of why I haven't made flightgear depend on fgfs-aircraft-base and
> fgfs-models-base; however, it's obviously also quite undesirable that
> users can't just start flightgear after installing it.
> 
> How did you want to address this? Would a Recommends relation on
> fgfs-aircraft-base and fgfs-models-base work? Or maybe you'd prefer
> depending on virtual packages provided by these, and let any custom
> aircraft packages also provide them?
> 
> Ove

Hi Ove,

I think a Recommends relation to the aircraft and data packages would be
a good idea, as this would set the average user up with a working
installation of FlightGear, but leave there options open. 

I think having virtual packages is not the best solution as it does not
add much, and as you stated before packaging all FlightGear aircraft
would be (as I realise now) not the best approach, and I don't think a
half hearted solution is good either.

Going slightly further afield now, to my vague ideas of a more permanent
solution. 

I found this somehow, ( http://wiki.debian.org/getData ) and it put the
aircraft/scenery problem in to a wider perspective for me. Looks like
this issue has no clear solution, at the moment at least. 

My "thinking out of the box" solution to this general problem is to
create a new class of package, Debian already has binary, source and
virtual packages but what about "symbolic" packages. Imagine a framework
that is capable of retrieving data from different locations properly in
to the Debian package management system. Binary/Source package work well
for the distribution of code, but they are not efficient or flexible at
distribution of data.

I could think of two use cases of this. Packages like this could
represent a scenery file for instance, they would be installed just like
a normal package, "apt-get fgfs-scenery-w60e60" for instance, installing
the package would automatically fetch the scenery file either from the
fastest mirror, removable storage device, or a user specified location.
Then configure it and install it, such that all the files are properly
tracked but the package system, just like a normal binary package. 

Secondly this system could also be used for tracking and managing
applications like terrasync, you could install the fgfs-terrasync
(binary) package and it would pull in also the symbolic
fgfs-terrasync-data package. This package would use terrasync to fetch
the default scenery and register the files properly with the packaging
system, making for a more comprehensive packaging system with more
precise, easy control.

Not sure how realistic this all is, but I thought I would put it in
anyway.

Thanks for continuing your excellent work packaging FlightGear,

Chris
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