One very helpful improvement to aptitude would be if it would handle
browsing/installing source packages from deb-src sources.

When pointing at the regular debian repositories, this isn't always
necessary, since every source package should be already compiled
(although, this isn't necessarily the case--the amd64 port, for
instance, since it not all packages are currently build). However,
this is very useful for 3rd-party repositories, where being able to
browse/download/install source packages and their build-deps from
within aptitude's GUI would be a very useful feature.

retitle 299678 aptitude: support installing build-dependencies from
curses/gtk interface
quit
correct me if I have misinterpreted any of these.


1. Browse source packages

A new grouping policy [1] has been added in 0.6.4-1 which enables
browsing sources in the package view:

# with grouping policy `source,status'
...
--\ eggdrop (2)
  --- Not Installed packages (2)
--\ eglibc (17)
  --\ Upgradable Packages (6)
i    libc-bin
i    libc-dev-bin
i    libc6
i    libc6-dev
i    locales
i    multiarch-support
  --- Not Installed Packages (11)
...


2. Download source packages

Not implemented in aptitude but suggested elsewhere [2, 3].


3. Install build-dependencies of packages

- command-line action [4] was added in 0.4.11-1
- the curses interface does not support this yet


4. Build source packages

Not implemented _by aptitude_ but suggested elsewhere [5].

See also: apt-build - frontend to apt to build, optimize and install
packages.


* Summary

The only remaining feature suggested here which is not either already
implemented or covered elsewhere is installing build-dep from the
curses interface.

Retitled.


[1]  Bug 497206 -- aptitude: Groups packages by Source package
[2]  Bug 403372 -- To include option for download the source archives
[3]  Bug 468897 -- aptitude: implement source action from apt
[4]  Bug 243317 -- Implement "aptitude build-dep <source-pkg>"
[5]  Bug 403289 -- add shortcut to compile a software