openoffice needs a dependency on jre because (Wikipedia): Version 1 made use of Java for some auxiliary functions, but version 2 increased the suite's use of the programming platform. The following areas depend on a Java Runtime Environment being present on the user's computer: * Parts of the Base application * The media player on Unix-like systems * All document wizards in Writer * Accessibility tools * Report Autopilot * JDBC driver support * HSQL database engine, which is used in OpenOffice.org base * XSLT filters * BeanShell, the NetBeans scripting language and the Java UNO bridge * Export filters to the Aportis.doc (.pdb) format for the Palm OS or Pocket Word (.psw) format for the Pocket PC This is especially because there is no meaningful error message when those program parts are accessed, leaving people in the dark about the cause of the problem. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. paludis -pi openoffice-bin 2. (no java USE flag in /etc/paludis/* Actual Results: * app-office/openoffice-bin-2.2.1 {:0} [R] -gnome -java -kde linguas: -af -as_IN -be_BY -bg -br -bs -ca -cs -cy -da de -dz -el en -en_GB -en_ZA -eo -es -et -fa -fi fr -ga -gl -gu_IN -he -hi_IN -hr -hu -it -ja -km -ko -ku -lt -mk -ml_IN -mr_IN -nb -ne -nl -nn -nr -ns -or_IN -pa_IN -pl -pt -ru -rw -sh_YU -sk -sl -sr_CS -ss -st -sv -sw_TZ -ta_IN -te_IN -tg -th -ti_ER -tn -tr -ts -uk -ur_IN -ve -vi -xh -zh_CN -zh_TW -zu Expected Results: the java flag should not be commented out see the URL for a discussion and examples
That's all pretty well known, but: I beg to differ. Not going to introduce a hard dependency on java, that's what use flags are for, with Gentoo it's your own choice which functionality you want to have. If you want a meaningful error message, file this upstream at OOo.
