IMHO showing a warning that you are about to do something stupid but then proceeding to do so is a terrible user interface. Also, I don't like command line utilities that ask stupid questions (a.k.a. the windows UI style).
Really, I still don't know a use case where you actually want to search the list of old-style packages. All the old-style packages that I recently tried don't work. Back when we switched to the new-style packages I already went through the list old-style packages and converted everything that made sense to me and worked on my machine. E.g. chomp doesn't build. I do, however, see lots of very good examples for why its terribly confusing to install old-style packages for unsuspecting users. For starters: * The "python" package is ancient, you really want the new "python2" or "python3" packages. Nobody is going to figure that one out * TOPCOM vs. topcom, which one is current? If you really want to use old-style packages then thats fine, just specify the full url to the spkg. The only old-style spkg on the Sage mirrors that is actively developed is Simon's, and he is most likely better served by providing the spkg at some place that is under his direct control and telling his users the full url. On Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 9:44:39 AM UTC+2, Jeroen Demeyer wrote: > > Hello, > > as you might know, we currently have two kinds of packages in Sage: the > old-style .spkg files which were the norm in Sage 5.x and the new-style > $SAGE_ROOT/build/pkgs packages which are currently the norm. > > The question is: to what extent should we continue supporting old-style > packages? > > (A) sage -i OLDSTYLEPKGNAME should just install the package, there is no > difference with new-style packages from the user's point of view. > (B) sage -i OLDSTYLEPKGNAME should still work but with a clear > deprecation warning. > (C) sage -i OLDSTYLEPKGNAME should still work but only after a "are you > sure?" confirmation, like we have for experimental packages. > (D) sage -i OLDSTYLEPKGNAME should give an error. > > In Sage 6.8 we have (A) and in the latest betas, we have (D). I think > that (D) is an over-reaction to the problem that some old-style packages > are confusing or broken. > > My personal vote goes to (B) since it still allows non-interactive > scripts to work like before but it shows a clear message that packages > should migrate to new-style packages. This is also implemented in #19158. > > Jeroen.. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
