Could someone, please, clarify situation with *-javadoc

[Ville Skyttä]

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.