Description of problem: During install of package "vtk-devel", also packages "vtk-qt" and "qt" get pulled in. It's impossible to uninstall "vtk-qt" without uninstalling "vtk-devel", too. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): vtk-5.0.3-20.fc8 How reproducible: Always. Steps to Reproduce: 1. "yum install vtk-devel". 2. "rpm -q vtk-qt". 3. "rpm -e vtk-qt". Actual results: Uninstall of "vtk-qt" via "rpm -e vtk-qt" is rejected, and error: Failed dependencies: libQVTK.so.5.0()(64bit) is needed by (installed) vtk-devel-5.0.3-20.fc8.x86_64 is returned in the shell. Expected results: Package "vtk-qt" is removed from the system. Additional info: Package "vtk-devel" needs to be split up into "vtk-devel" and "vtk-qt-devel" to get rid of this undesired depedency.
A *-devel package may depend on (several) other packages. Just as valid a split off for qt is it is for java, tcl, python etc as well. And the lines blur as there may be combinations of toolkits and language bindings that need each other again, or one would have to start splitting in toolkits/language bindings tuples etc. The drawback is requiring development systems to carry some more packages even if the developer does not use them. That's not that big an evil - we're trying to minimize runtime footprint, not development. ;)
You are absolutely right: there should be individual subpackages for the different toolkits. As an example, take a look at "plplot" where a clean separation is done for the individual toolkits: plplot-devel-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-gnome-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-gnome-devel-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-java-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-libs-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-tk-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-tk-devel-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-wxGTK-5.8.0-1.fc9 plplot-wxGTK-devel-5.8.0-1.fc9 Your viewpoint is very subjective, and you cannot claim to know what "we" want when other packages implement things in a straightforward manner.
(In reply to comment #2) > Your viewpoint is very subjective, and you cannot claim to know what "we" > want when other packages implement things in a straightforward manner. Indeed this tends to be subjective as is your POV as well. And a packager's call is to make a decision to please the majority of users.