Re: Installing Arusha on a new site (long, but dull)

(Added ark-dev for more input)

On 26/9/2002 17:22, Will Partain wrote:

[Stuff about searching a program location path to find a working version of
a particular tool, e.g., tar.]
> 
> (OK, kill it, Jonathan :-)

;-)

While I kinda like the idea of just finding something that works and going
with it, I also sorta kinda don't. I think the Zen of Python has been slowly
seeping into my brain as I find myself favouring the "explicit is better
than implicit" argument.

I'm a bit nervous of the idea that something works because it just happened
to work rather than something works by design. I think I'd favour a better
(read easier to configure) mechanism for determining where things are on
what machines and how they should be used.

The current MUMBLE-BOOT stuff is a little flaky, but I think it can be
sorted out through stopping and thinking about it a bit. The best thing to
fix this sort of thing is exactly what Joel is doing - work through the
bootstrap process a bit sorting out the dependencies and fixing the BOOT
resources.

All that leaves then is determining an appropriate order and set of packages
that must be revealed to make the rest work. [See my other email about
putting this sort of thing into host specs.]

I fear the idea that something might get compiled with the wrong compiler or
linked with the wrong linker silently because of some revelation error. I'd
rather have it trip over a ball of nightmarish dependency errors than just
guess.

Perhaps I'm being too generous to the current mechanism though...

Jonathan

-- 
jonathan hogg, one good idea ltd, 131 queen margaret dr., glasgow g20 8pd
http://www.onegoodidea.com/ tel:+44-(0)7976-614338 fax:+44-(0)7970-537451



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