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

[Peter Bex]

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 08:39:21AM +0200, felix winkelmann wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 7:23 PM, Peter Bex <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 02:41:27PM +0200, Peter Bex wrote:
> >> 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.
> >
> > On second thought, the syntax above is needlessly complex.
> >
> > (require-library foo bar-1.2 qux-1) is much more straightforward and
> > maps _directly_ to the code in the 'versions' egg, too.  It also reserves
> > the "structured library names" like (bar ..) for future enhancements.
> 
> Indeed, the list structures are already used ("(srfi 1 2 3)", etc.). There
> even is a "(version ...)" feature, but I forgot what it does (;-). The only
> problem is searching for the highest sub-version, which will require
> comparison of version files and obtaining directory listings. This will
> have to happen at runtime and it would be unfortunate to make every
> program depend on the posix unit.

How about the Unix approach of maintaining symlinks?  On Windows one could
use the Registry.  Or to keep things simple, chicken-setup could just
maintain a simple file that contains lists of installed egg versions.

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

pgp4RWIBCCeaP.pgp
Description: PGP signature