Comment 2 for bug 990982

I'm pretty sure the first point is not a bug.
When I tried to compile 32 bits wine, the configure script told me my system was unable to compile 32 bits programs ("gcc -m32 .." was failing).
I tried installing gcc:i386 but apt-get refused to do so (".. have unmet dependencies ..").
I found that gcc-multilib was the package I was looking for and if you look at what provides this package, there is libc6-dev-i386.
So I think libc6-dev is libc6-dev for amd64 in my case, libc6-dev-i386 = 32 bits libc6-dev on amd64 and libc6-dev-amd64:i386 = 64 bits libc6-dev on i386 (for compiling programs targetting amd64 from a i386 computer).
I know that sounds complex but in the end, it's failrly logical :
- gcc:i386 is gcc on 32 bits Ubuntu
- gcc:amd64 is gcc on 64 bits Ubuntu
so trying t install gcc:i386 on 64 bits Ubuntu means replacing (amd64) gcc by its i386 version.
Maybe the package description is not clear (I can file another bug for that if you want), but I personnally don't consider it as a bug.

And FYI, 'sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libc6-dev:i386' also wants to remove gcc, build-essential...

And concerning this bug, I know multiarch is recent and I can understand it needs some work.
I'm not a packager nor a maintainer so I don't know exatly how it works but as a programmer, I can create and generate patches.
So if you need help, feel free to ask.