On Friday 07 May 2010, Andrew Overholt wrote:
Hi,
> Sometimes *-javadoc sub-packages explicitly requires main package, and
> sometimes - not. I'm not a java-expert, so I don't know which is
> correct.
I don't think it really matters. In some cases, sure, it would be nice
to ensure that the package is around if someone is looking at the API
documentation. Other times someone may only want to peruse the APIs
without installing the implementation.
Others will have different opinions so let's hear 'em.
I'm strongly against adding such dependencies if the javadocs don't actually
for some reason _really_ require the main package. I don't think I've seen a
case where such a dependency would really exist.
- Common sense and common packaging practices: don't add dependencies that
aren't really requirements for a package.
- It's convenient to be able to install lots of *-javadoc packages (nicely
crosslinked even in many cases) and configure a web server to serve them,
browse them and/or configure IDEs to access API docs from there. Main package
deps would pull in lots of cruft that isn't needed by a server with this role.