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Re: [Chicken-users] Re: getopt, getopt_long?


From: Peter Bex
Subject: Re: [Chicken-users] Re: getopt, getopt_long?
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:24:02 +0200
User-agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 10:26:58AM +0900, William Xu wrote:
> "felix winkelmann" <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > I think chicken-setup should NOT duplicate functionality that
> > modern packaging tools provide. Dpkg and portage will always
> > do a better job at that, and it would be more worthwhile to push
> > for adoption of eggs into these packaging systems (which, IIRC,
> > Ivan already does with debianizing several eggs).
> 
> I don't know if i understand correctly.  If that means making each egg a
> debian package, oh Jesus!! That'll spawn many debian eggs.  And
> considering there are that many linux distributions, it's a big burden..
> not to mention non-linux platforms.  

I agree completely.  Actually, I tend to view things in the opposite way:
WTF would anyone waste time trying to keep all those packages up-to-date, if
you can just install it using chicken-setup?

Here's a real-life example:
For Ruby there is a chicken-setup like tool called "rubygems" that
everyone uses. It can be considered part of a "base install" of Ruby,
but some distros (like Debian) do not package this tool because in their
worldview there is no room for any other package manager on the system.
Of course, if you want to use a newly released or not-so-popular rubygem,
you're shit out of luck because nobody bothered to package it as a
debfile, especially since DEBIAN IS ALWAYS LAGGING LIGHTYEARS BEHIND.

This annoys me to no end because we invariably end up needing such a
gem for whatever reason. So we end up having to manually compile the
rubygems program (or using a third-party package repository with a
precompiled rubygems). Of course, having a few rubygems managed by
dpkg and a few by rubygems is undoable, so we ALWAYS end up installing
all ruby gems using rubygems, and none using dpkg.

Relying on OS package managers is a Very Bad Idea.

(sorry for the rant)

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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