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Date:      Thu, 6 Feb 2014 08:59:46 +0100
From:      Big Lebowski <spankthespam@gmail.com>
To:        Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>
Cc:        freebsd-ports <freebsd-ports@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: [FreeBSD-Ports-Announce] Time to bid farewell to the old pkg_ tools
Message-ID:  <CAHcXP%2Be1orionpYmyTWweC02mqU8B1FzZV=T4BEmdyekN%2BJxuA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <52F32F7C.2030601@infracaninophile.co.uk>
References:  <201402052202.s15M2Lha059200@fire.js.berklix.net> <52F2C0C8.5010203@gmx.de> <CAN6yY1uyXNp_c4PruKM89S9g0Y0QAs02cu5Z-dx3oSg1yZC19Q@mail.gmail.com> <52F32F7C.2030601@infracaninophile.co.uk>

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On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 7:45 AM, Matthew Seaman <
m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:

> On 05/02/2014 23:57, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > 1. The ports/packages system is not total crap. In fact, at the time jkh
> > started it, it was far superior to any tool available.
>
> When I first encountered the ports, way back in 1998 or so, I was
> completely mind-blown that something so fantastic could exist.  Yes, it
> was revolutionary at the time and right where FreeBSD should be --
> leading the rest of the world with great innovations.
>
> However, things have changed in the last 16 years. Development of the
> ports as a global concept has been resting on its laurels a bit, and the
> rest of the world has caught up, and indeed overtaken.   Partly that was
> due to the mindset of seeing binary packages as a second-class thing;
> partly due to the old pkg_tools not providing the scope to implement
> innovative features; partly due to pkg_tools being part of the FreeBSD
> base, so impossible to update over reasonable timescales due to the
> requirement to support older RELEASE branches.
>
> pkg(8) addresses those problems, and I hope will do so for at least the
> next decade.
>
> > 5. The introduction of pkgng could have really been handled better and
> that
> > probably increased the negative feelings about it. It was also a bit
> before
> > it was really ready. It still lacks a few features I feel are quite
> > important, but they were also missing from the old system.
>
> I don't think it's possible to make a change of this magnitude without
> upsetting anyone.  We have been getting a lot of feedack on the lines of
> 'Wow! This is great.  When can we have feature XYZ?'  to which we
> frequently have to reply that XYZ can't be implemented without breaking
> compatibility with pkg_tools.  Like sub-packages.
>
> I'd be interested to hear what features you think are missing.  We will
> implement anything (eventually...) that there is demand for and that is
> technically feasible, and that fits with the overall concept of what we
> think a packaging system should do.  There's a number of ideas in the
> github issue list already (usually tagged with 'longterm' or 'thinking')
> and we are happy for people to add to that, or to discuss ideas -- the
> freebsd-pkg@ list is a good place for that.
>

The ability to install certain package version, instead of installing
simply the latest one. Please, please, pretty please! :)

B.


>
>         Cheers,
>
>         Matthew
>
> --
> Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.
>
> PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey
> JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk
>
>



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