Port dependencies

[b. f.]

Chris Telting wrote:
> See above.  What I want to see is minimal installs with all features
> being usable once you install the optional components.  And run time
> detection for programs shouldn't be all that difficult or computation
> intensive.  The program would just consult pkg_info or another similar
> but faster database (and maybe somewhat platform independent) of what's
> installed on the system.

It's not a "minimal install" if binaries are bloated with extra code
to selectively enable _all_ functionality depending upon run-time
configuration options and dependency detection, rather than just the
functionality that is going to be used.  And build times would be
longer, usually much longer, because all functionality in the software
and all possible dependencies would have be built. And of course a lot
of software would have to be rewritten.  And I think that the added
overhead would not always be negligible. So while your idea has
certain advantages, it also has disadvantages.  It does not seem
practical to implement it, even if it were desirable to do so, for
most software at the present time.

b.