Dan Price wrote: > One thing we've seen over the last couple of weeks is that as we > drive features into pkg(1), we're left wanting to know more > about how the GUI works, and to help it get better. > > There has also been some breakage. There seem to be a couple of reasons > for this: > > 1) packagemanager uses APIs inside of pkg(5) that are not > stable; the Image Packaging team is not aware of which APIs > are in use by the GUI, and so we may break the GUI at > any time. > > 2) packagemanager is not aware of evolving concepts in > IPS, such as preferred authorities, ZFS-based transactions, > etc. > > And while it's not directly related to breakage, I would note that: > > 3) packagemanager has some different idioms with respect > to package versions, command line options, etc. when > compared to the pkg(1) command set. Having the code > colocated will allow us to converge on a common idiom > over time, benefitting our users. > > Even the source itself looks and feels different from > the pkg(1) source, which is a maintenance efficiency issue. > > To rectify this situation, I would like to propose that the GUI source > code be colocated with the packaging system in the same source tree. > This will allow the development teams to collaborate more effectively, > and will allow the IPS team to ensure that we don't break the GUI at an > API level. It should also significantly add to the number of developers > testing the GUI on a daily basis. > I understand the pain, but isn't why ARC documents, interface definitions and reviews are for? This is critical for a client/server system like the IPS system... What about other alternate GUI using an IPS server like the one for Java Enterprise System available on a multitude of platforms? Which APIS can they use? What will happen when Indiana Rc2, RcN or Indiana 2008.10 will be out? Which APIs should I use to write a client GUI in Java? If I create an IPS repository with Indiana 2008.05 serving it, will Indiana 2008.10 GUI packagemanager be able to access it? If the APIs are evolving in real time (i.e between RC0 to RC1), then maybe an experimental delivery of packagemanager is needed?
So far, my level of testing of the UI has been very limited as I did not find a way to add or change via the UI the repository from pkg.opensolaris.org to another (currently private to Sun) repository. Ludo > Thoughts? > > -dp > > _______________________________________________ pkg-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss
