Re: Just some thoughts

Aschwin Marsman wrote:

> I'm wondering how we can promote the use of aap with little effort.
> I don't think it's reasonable to expect that aap is going to replace
> configure/make in the near future for a lot of packages.
> 
> But what can be done?
> 
> When you want to use an application, there are some possibilities:
> - get a binary package
>   drawback: not always the latest version/patchlevel, you have to depend
>   on another person for you to supply it
> - get the source and build it yourself
>   drawback: you need the tools and it takes more time than installing a
>             binary package
> - for most applications, there are two versions that are maintained:
>   stable and latest/test. For some packages I always want the latest
>   (vim in my case), for others I would like a stable package (the window
>   manager).
> 
> What I would like to have is aap recipes for a lot of applications that
> let my say:
> aap --install <package> --version=stable|latest|.. --delivery=binary|source|..
> 
> This would download all necessary software (include e.g. all patches for vim
> if I specify latest), if needed build it and install it. This will make
> use of the default configure/make/.. that's inside the package and supplies
> a convience layer on top of it. Later the configure/make/... can be replaced
> by the aap recipe if that's possible (You will need to have support of the
> maintainer of the application, otherwise the aap recipe can become out of
> sync when the configure/make/... is changed.).
> 
> Which options are needed is off course open for discussion, but I think
> it would be nice to have a standard interface (options) that all aap
> recipes support.
> 
> What do you think? 

I think this is a very good plan.  What I have done with packages so far
is only the first step.  With a few more features, such as selecting the
stable/latest version, it quickly becomes very useful.

If someone would like to work on this, I will certainly give my support.

-- 
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
47. You are so familiar with the WWW that you find the search engines useless.

 /// Bram Moolenaar -- [email protected] -- http://www.Moolenaar.net   \\\
///          Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.Vim.org          \\\
\\\              Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org        ///
 \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///


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