Chicken-setup redesign (was: Re: [Chicken-users] Re: getopt, getopt_long?)

[Peter Bex]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 09:25:21AM +0200, felix winkelmann wrote:
> Allow me a slight rant...
> 
> chicken-setup has served us well, but now has mutated into a large
> intricate mess. There has been a rewrite a while ago, but the messiness
> is still there, partly because a tool like chicken-setup has to do so
> many different things (file-system operations, extension handling,
> HTTP download, build invocation, cross-compilation, etc.). I think the
> only solution is to
> completely dump it and start from scratch. 

Now would be the time to consider allowing multiple versions of the same
library installed at the same time.  If we are to make Chicken
attractive in business settings, there needs to be a way to keep old
stuff working while being able to make use of the latest & greatest
when starting new projects. Businesses don't have the time or money to
keep upgrading their old code whenever they install new,
backwards-incompatible libraries.

Of course, this would also require the possibility of loading a
particular version of a library.  I propose this syntax:

(require-library foo (bar 1.2) (qux 1))

This requires the latest installed version of foo (whatever that is),
and version 1.2 of bar.  From qux the latest installed minor version
with major version 1 is required (so, if you have 1.1 and 1.2 installed,
it will pick 1.2).  These semantics match those of the 'versions' egg,
I think.

To keep things simple, only one version of any egg can be loaded in one
program at a time.

Cheers,
Peter
-- 
http://sjamaan.ath.cx
--
"The process of preparing programs for a digital computer
 is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
 and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic
 experience much like composing poetry or music."
                                                        -- Donald Knuth

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