On Tue, 2003-11-25 at 01:25, Peter Kiem wrote:
> > SRPMS are a lot more than tarballs since they define build time
> > dependencies (ie they refuse to build if this or that isn't installed),
> > configure flags (eg --with-acl, --with-openldap in the case of samba)
> > install-time configure scripts
>
> My point was that SRPMS are bascially a wrapper around tarball installs.
Can I pitch in a couple of Lincolns?
I first touched a Unix machine in 1989. My resume, for which I
waited at the local printer came out in Albuquerque. This taught me two
things I didn't notice until much later:
1. Unix is an interesting world with LOTS of cool tools.
2. Things don't always work the way they seem, so you have to try to
make things easy for the user (who may, or may NOT remember where the
default printer is.)
I've spent tens of thousands of hours sitting behind a black-n-white
80x24 screen untarring files and wishing I knew all the details.
PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GO BACK THERE.
SRPMS are nice; like someone leaving a reel-type lawn mower for a
brand-new power mower and mulcher that doesn't have to be emptied, I
really don't want to go back to the way it was before.
Yeah, tarballs are more flexible; if you know every library it might
ever need, you can build a tarball for a MIPS or DEC or whatever...but
lets think about this: since the RPM package is built for almost
everything short of a Timex $2 watch, how about we build everything in
SRPMs, and make use of their inherent ability to build for multiple
platforms?
I remember people clinging to non-windows machines...they were
pathetic, and I was one of'em.
But trust me: I don't have time to remember the dependency tree for
all 3,000-or-so RPM packages, and I shouldn't have to.
SRPMs/RPMs are an evolution. Just like using, say, MySQL is easier
than maintaining flat-files, re-writing locking routines every time
someone needs another phone-book app, it's a tool. And we're darned
lucky to have it: it does everything we need it to, and if it doesn't,
we'll add to it.
They allow the few among us who program to give a hand to the rest
of us a hand-up to get things going. And a program that can't be
installed is just a datafile, right?
It's not about programmer-macho, it's not about the guy that
memorizes all the xlib calls by heart...it's about saving time and
shortening the time it takes to make that huge, killer-app.
If you really need the power of a tarball, feel free to install it
and copy it anywhere. But the rest of us will just rpmbuild and hope
for the best.
Enjoy! Rejoice in the power of RPMS!
--
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Brian FahrlÃnder Researcher, Conservative, and Technomad
Evansville, IN http://Fahrlander.net
ICQ 5119262
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