Re: features, modules and packages

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

   From: Alex Shinn <address@hidden>
   Date: 28 Dec 2001 15:18:07 +0900

   I'm talking in terms of a tool to install those packages.

yes, me too.

   We need to know the dependencies before we start the install process.
   The build dependencies and the pre-installation dependencies are two
   different things.

to be more detailed, the build and pre-inst dependencies are two
different sets that may share some things and not others.  expression
and evaluation of these sets may already be covered by existing tools,
(modulo SMOP).

   I know where I want to go with gumm next, apart from the obvious of
   breaking it into proper modules and creating a separate command
   script.  I want it to look at the package dependencies (read from a
   sexp-based package list, no autoconf involved though autoconf may
   autogen it) and download the other packages needed.

cool.  i'll just keep working from the bottom up.  at some point, you'll
use these cobbled hacks and i will look forward to your feedback then.

   And I was assuming I'd use version-based dependencies because that's
   what all the other package managers I've ever seen use, and it works
   very well for them.

that's fine.  underlying system supports these types of constraints.

   If you disagree with this approach then I'm open to convincing
   otherwise, but it is very unclear to me how to map features to module
   versions.  And it seems like breaking from a well-trodden path
   without good reason.

it's cool.  we surf a different scope and will work together again soon.
just remember that you can implement featuretests almost effortlessly,
in a nice language.  last question: who would understand such mappings
but the Author (we hope :-) ?!?

thi