The fedora-gnat-project-common package has so far required gcc-gnat. I'm
considering removing this dependency. My arguments are as follows:
· The dependency seemed to make sense initially, because directories.gpr
would be of no use without Gnatmake. This is no longer true now that
GPRbuild is in Fedora. Gnat project files can now be processed by either
Gnatmake or GPRbuild.
· GPRbuild can be used for other languages than Ada. It should be
possible to compile a program written entirely in C, C++, Fortran or
some other language. Gnat would not be needed in such a case, but
directories.gpr and the RPM macros in macros.gnat would be useful, so it
makes sense to be able to install fedora-gnat-project-common without
pulling in gcc-gnat.
· The only argument I have for keeping the dependency is convenience. In
the typical case the dependency allows packagers to write
"BuildRequires: fedora-gnat-project-common" instead of "BuildRequires:
fedora-gnat-project-common gcc-gnat". I think technical accuracy is more
important than convenience in this case. A package that requires Gnat to
build shall say so in the spec file. By the way there are greater
convenience gains to be made by other means, such as spec file templates.
Opinions on this before I make the change in Rawhide?
Björn
