> apt ain't perfect, and I'm not sure any solution will > be perfect, but we can > probably do something better than apt. apt is pretty > old already. opensolaris > has the advantage that apt is already around. Would > be good to borrow the > good from it and have our own. And I don't mean > borrow in the sense of code, > but in the sense of concept/functionality.
I don't know the whole story on *nix packages, so maybe you can tell me if I am off-base here. But it is my understanding that all the problems stem from dependency issues and the architectural choices that radiate out from that subject. I understand that rPath Conary and Arch Linux Pacman do the same old thing in a new and better way, and maybe that is enough. But it seems to me that the best solution to the dependency problem is to remove the dependencies. Not all of them and not everywhere, but just reevaluate the requirements of the system and only support dependencies where you need them. Which is to say, don't make everyone share little files that said everyone don't have control over. Disk space is free, so little files can be packaged with each application and nobody will get hurt. Giant shared libraries like Java and .net stuff would continue to do their thing, managed by their own master that everyone looks up to. You don't share all your app configuration files in a giant registry (good thing, the windows registry is an overused sham), so why share 100kb library files? Aren't they really the same thing? Your application of a given build expects to see these files of a given type, and something bad could happen if it doesn't get what it wants. So unless there is a reason to share the files, keep them private. Let the application builder tend to his or her own flock. In controlled, thoughtful environments like Microsoft or Sun headquarters you can manage and deal with dependency issues by laying down processes and having regular planned releases with early documentation and thorough testing and forced compatibility across applications and all that jazz. But as soon as you go open source you have this sick spider web of developers and applications that just invites conflicts.. unless you prevent them before they happen? :) This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
