Optdepends are used for software like lighttpd or apache where some optional modules may need these optdepends. /usr/bin/wifi-menu is a first class citizen of this package, not just some optional module. wifi-menu isn't so much a "first-class-citizen" as it is a graphical interface to the netctl backend.
I don't know of any other package that would do the same. I know of several packages that optionally depend on graphical interfaces to provide a graphical interface to the program. Of the top of my head I can think of nmap which optdepends on pygtk for
On 27/02/14 at 13:22, Nowaker wrote: the zenmap binary. There are more, and I think that is a perfectly valid use case.
I do pay attention to the output, but current state of wifi-menu in netctl is a nonsense. And what is a nonsense needs to be fixed, right? Three other people already agree with me.
I don't consider this nonsense, wifi-menu is not an essential part of netctl so dialog shouldn't be in the depends. wifi-menu also isn't important enough to receive its own package. I see zero problem with wifi-menu remaining a binary in netctl that requires an optdepend in order to function because wifi-menu does nothing extraordinary but provide a simple user interface to netctl. To sum it up: the status-quo is fine as it is. There is no point in changing something that not only works but also makes perfect sense. -- Simon Thelen Yes, I've now got this nice little apartment in New York, one of those L-shaped ones. Unfortunately, it's a lower case l. -- Rita Rudner