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* Not every application would want to enforce this *strictly*. Because dynamic languages can soft-detect dependencies usually.
* Within a plugin management UI, the depends: list could be used for installation warnings.
It's optional, and might be treated as documentation in some implementations.
## Versioned dependencies
### Versioned dependencies
Additionally the plugin names can be suffixed with a version comparison:
# depends: core (>= 2.0.0)
Which obviously does require the plugin manager to be somewhat more involved. You'll often get away just implementing a `>=` check. Most other version expression gimmicks are likely overkill for simple applicatiion-level features.
Which obviously does require the plugin manager to be somewhat more involved. You'll often get away just implementing a `>=` check. Other version expressions are usually overkill for simple application-level features.
## System/language references
### System/language references
While a `TYPE:name` entry can reference other scopes (instead of application-local plugins)
| `bin:imagemagick` | verify a binary exists |
| `python:lxml` | for language modules |
| `sys:amd64` | e.g. the architecture. |
| `deb:anacron` | as hint for the system package manager. |
| `api:archnemesis` | see [api](wiki/api) |
This is quite informal still. There's seldomly practical value to implement such complex dependency lookups, or these exact ones. This is just the advised syntax.
### Magic basenames
One could implement a few "magic" basenames as well. For instance checking the current language version with just `# depends: python (>= 3.4)`, or if feasible check for module versions `php:sqlite (>= 3.24)`.
## Related fields
### Related fields
Depending on complexity other fields might be used alongside:
#### # conflicts:
Does occasionally make sense for variants or mutally exclusive features.
* `# provides:`
* `# conflicts:`
* `# suggests:`
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