Stephen Pair wrote:
>>The problem is that you are not the author of A and B. You can't 
>>find out that easy if A and B are satisfied with a larger range of 
>>versions of C too.
>>
>
>Most of the time, neither can the author of A or B since they are not 
>necessarily the authors of C.

They can do it better than you, because they know package C better 
than you and they are following its evolution more closely than you. 

>>Second problem: Everyone who wants to load A and B must write your 
>>added config, it is more efficient to do this only once.
>>
>
>It's only necessary to write the config if your config tools force 
>you to write it.  A configuration can be created by simply 
>"snapshotting" the packages that you have loaded in a given image.
>.......

I stand by this too. Either there are 'configs' with ALL possible 
versions of a prerequisite ( e.g. declared with ranges ), or there are 
FEWER possible versions meaning there are large gaps and many people 
will have to fill these gaps on their own. This means many will do 
what could have been done only once. 

>>With this 'added config' you are only doing something afterwards ( 
>>perhaps multiple times in perhaps different scenarios ) which could 
>>be done beforehand once by the one who could do it best - the author 
>>of a package. 
>>
>
>No it can't.  The author of a package has absolutely no way of 
>knowing whether a prereq of "PackageC >1.0" will actually work...that 
>is, unless they have the ability to see into the future.  ;)  Thus, 
>such a pre-req specification is not only inaccurate, but it's also 
>very problematic.

Sorry, but it can, for instance with 1.0<=version<=2.0.

Even if you use an 'openend' range like version>=1.0 where sometimes a 
disharmony may occur you may be better off than with your system, 
where you have to test _often_ if something 'officially not allowed' 
works and where you will have such failures too. 

But you are right these 'openend' ranges should be used careful, and 
should be taken care of - especially if a higher version arrives :) 

regards, Martin