Comment 3 for bug 181439

How is the first available option determined? Is it done by sorting package names alphabetically or some other criteria? Minimizing the total number of packages needed to fulfill a dependency seems like a good heuristic for apt to use to determine if it's solution integrates well with the set of packages already installed in the system. I think that behavior would be more predictable to a user than the current behavior. Of course, if this change is too complex or too low priority to even justify being placed on a feature wishlist, I understand.