[openbeos] Re: packaging system

We had a very long conversation about this on Glass Elevator.
Basically, where I am with it for right now is this - unless something just 
walks up, 
troutslaps me and says "Hey - I am a great MIT-licensed installer and I want to 
go into
your source control", we aren't putting any effort into this.

I can hear the cries of despair now... Let me just talk a little bit about why.

The number one reason is that we don't *really* need it. I think that we are 
all mature 
enough to admit that R5/R1 is *NOT* really ready for Joe Sixpack. It is very 
good, don't get
me wrong, but it is not really the release that I want to install on my Mom's 
machine. Having said
that, I think that an over-emphasis on clueless newbie installers is overkill 
for right now. R2+ is really
the place for this sort of thing.

The number two reason is that the problems that Linux and BSD's have with apps 
are a lot less common
on BeOS. What is the biggest issue on other OS's with apps? Dependency 
management. Without *any*
question. BeOS has had little issue with that, because of the packaging. libc 
(aka libroot) and most every
"library" that you need comes with the OS from day one. We don't have libjpeg 
and libgif and libz and 
libfoo and libbar. Most everything comes with the OS from the beginning. So the 
actual number of 
non-OS distributed libraries is always very small. And those libraries all 
compile against a "standard" 
libroot. Which means no "to install this app, you will need version 2.5 of 
libfoo compiled against
version x,y of libc" will happen.

Now. Having said that, I certainly do know that there are libraries on R5. 
libsdl, for one. And we haven't talked
at all about what to do with some of these for R1, much less R2. But I don't 
think that the problem is painful enough,
at this point, to require a high powered installer app, at this point. As nice 
as they are. Zip files, as we have today, 
should work just nicely for R1. 

If you really have a fly in your shorts over this issue, go build the world's 
greatest installer and send it to me. ;-)

Until then, this is a Glass Elevator/R2 issue. ;-)

Michael

>As long as we are babbling about package managers, Debian's apt system is
>pretty damn spiffy.
>
>You can search for packages using keywords and it does all your
>dependencies for you and updates things if need be.
>
>It also allows for uninstall effortlessly.
>
>Alan
>
>
>> Basically it does whatever packaging systems like RPM does, but it stays
>> hidden =) It does the configures and installs, but it does it
>> automagickally
>> and the user doesn't have to interfere.
>> (I got to study English..using to much 'does')
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "vootele" <vootele@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: "Openbeos List" <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 6:52 AM
>> Subject: [openbeos] packaging system
>>
>>
>>> Has anyone tried QNX RTOS?
>>> It propably has the best packge system existing...
>>>
>>> "There is a great application called the "Package Manager". It allows to
>>> install in a very efficient way a new software; be it a new driver or
>>> any
>>> Qnx software. I checked if I could compile any C program entering a "cc"
>>> command in a terminal and Qnx said: /bin/sh: cc: not found
>>>
>>> Ok no problem, so I used the Package Manager to install it from the CD
>>> (if
>>> you don't have it, you can download/install it from the Qnx site). I
>>> have
>>> chosen the C compiler, then I hit the "Install" button and the CDROM led
>>> went green and immediately switched off again. I thought something went
>>> wrong but I tried to enter the "cc" command again and ... the C compiler
>> was
>>> there waiting a C source to compile ! No "make" command to use, no
>>> configuration file to edit, no install script to run and it was there,
>>> installed, ready for use. Incredible ! "
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

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