[Gambas-user] Feature Request - Package Management

[Rob]

On Tuesday 19 May 2009 03:07, KhurramM wrote:
> gambas-3.1.2-install.bin or gambas-3.1.2-install.sh
> for every new release (stable or unstable), for all linuxes.
> 2> Faster bug fixing (as every one uses it).

I certainly wouldn't.  If I can't install something using apt-get, I build 
my own package rather than using some binary installer.  

> 5> Be independent of compiling and dependency seeking.

You realize that for Gambas to include all its dependencies in the 
installer - Gtk, KDE, mysql, all the other libraries, statically linked so 
they'll run on any version of Linux - would make the Gambas installer fill 
a CD and maybe more, right?  

> 8> Easy testing of a unstable release.

When it comes to unstable development versions of programs, I think putting 
the "make barrier" in place is useful because it prevents less technical 
users from testing software that isn't safe for them to use yet.  If you 
have trouble compiling things, you're also going to have trouble running a 
debugger to post a stack trace after a crash.

> 3> More documentation to configure and use.
> 10> More helps available.

How will putting Gambas into a monolithic installer create more 
documentation and help?

> Just as sun offers jdk and jre releases fro linuxes.

Sun offers their jdk and jre installers because they used to be proprietary 
software and most distributions wouldn't package them.  That has changed, 
at least partly, but their culture is already in place.  Also, Java has 
very few dependencies, because it reinvents the wheel for the most part 
rather than using existing toolkits and libraries the way Gambas does.

> Currently I am on hardy, and I dont find it comfortable to compile.

There is an installer system called Klik that would provide what you're 
describing, a single file that includes all dependencies, and years ago 
someone packaged Gambas 1.x for Klik.  But I don't know if anyone updates 
it any more and even so, if you're running a KDE 3 system and try to 
install a version of Gambas that includes an entire copy of KDE 4, for 
example, I think it's not going to work too well.  It's a moot point, 
since even when they kept Klik up to date, they only included stable 
versions of programs, not development ones.

Rob