First of all, it’s not at all uncommon for several binary .debs
to come out of a single Debian source package. Consider, e. g.:
Package: curl
Binary: curl, libcurl4t64, libcurl3t64-gnutls, libcurl4-openssl-dev,
libcurl4-gnutls-dev, libcurl4-doc
Version: 8.12.1-3
(I believe the -gnutls package was mainly intended to overcome
license compatibility issues with libssl before version 3.
I gather there’re still uses for it, though.)
Package: vim
Binary: vim-common, vim-gui-common, vim-runtime, vim-doc, vim-tiny, vim,
vim-gtk3, vim-nox, vim-motif, vim-athena, xxd
Version: 2:9.1.1113-1
In this case, Vim packaging offers Debian users a choice in
the UI they use. For instance, my long-time preference is the
vim-tiny package; and were Vim team to drop it, I’d go straight
for $ busybox vi, as I no longer can quite stomach graphical
text editors.
Personally, I’ve mainly used xdaliclock as an ‘example’ X
client – to explain the use of X resources, -geometry, -font,
and so on. Not something I need often, but it certainly came
handy every once in a while.
Obviously, the current version is entirely unsuitable for this
purpose. I’ve found I can use dclock instead, but it certainly
would be nice to see source Package: xdaliclock also providing
a libXt-based Binary:, alongside the current GTK3-based one.
That said, we’re (almost) all volunteers here, so I can
understand the reluctance of a package maintainer, past or
present, to deal with software they have little to no interest
in. Why, were I the maintainer, I would be very reluctant to
provide a second binary, too. (Seeing as I try my best to
avoid dealing with anything GTK.)
FWIW, while on Bookworm, I’ve used the following /etc/apt/
preferences.d/ bits to force the use of xdaliclock (as well as
libimlib2, for footprint reasons) from Bullseye. Now that
it seems there isn’t much interest in maintaining a ‘classic’
version of X xdaliclock in Debian, I’ve decided to drop it
from my Debian installs.
(I’m now using a similar configuration to force installing
select few Bookworm packages on an otherwise Trixie system.)
Explanation: Prefer selected packages from Debian 11 Bullseye on this system.
Package: libimlib2 xdaliclock
Pin: release n=bullseye
Pin-Priority: 577
Explanation: Prefer selected packages from Debian 11 Bullseye (security) on
this system.
Package: libimlib2 xdaliclock
Pin: release n=bullseye-security
Pin-Priority: 577
Explanation: Prefer packages from Debian 12 Bookworm on this system.
Package: *
Pin: release n=bookworm
Pin-Priority: 557
Explanation: Prefer packages from Debian 12 Bookworm (security) on this system.
Package: *
Pin: release n=bookworm-security
Pin-Priority: 557
PS. As to ‘1991’ mentioned in the thread, while my first experience
using computers indeed dates back to around that time, it
wasn’t until c. 1992 that I’ve got my own computer, and also
it wasn’t until very late 1995 that I’ve got my first /32-bit/
one – an Am386-based machine. Never tried to run xdaliclock –
or X for that matter – on my computers before I’ve got AMD K6
in 1999, though.
