From: John Maddock (jz.maddock_at_[hidden])
Date: 2023-03-14 09:12:45
> There does need to be a way to recognise optional or soft dependencies
> though -- a library might include a compatibility header that can
> optionally be included if you are also using another library, but this
> should not require the other library as a hard dependency.
>
> If you in turn write a library or app that does use both, then you
> depend on both, but they don't depend on each other.
>
> I think it's ok to put this on the downstream author -- they will try
> to build, get a compile error, then add the missing dependency
> themselves.
>
Agreed 100%. The canonical example is serialization: you will most
certainly know that you need that library if you intend to serialize and
install it anyway, so no need for an automatic dependency.
John.