Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Ladislav Hagara <ladislav.hagara AT unob.cz>]

> I'd prefer to have single spells with all versions.
> There are some exceptions, such as the incompatible jack/jack-cvs and 
> the apaches.

Just my thinking about splitting cvs spells.
I also prefer single spells with all versions. Moreover it would be fine 
if "incompatible" versions were also included.

What is the problem with jack/jack-cvs? Is it impossible to resolve it 
by if.cvs.then.fi in DETAILS, BUILD, DEPENDS, INSTALL, ...?
Seems only ONE spell has jack-cvs in DEPENDS, it is timidity-cvs and 
probably nobody uses it, because it is still BUILD_API=1 spell.
And that line from DEPENDS: if spell_ok jack || spell_ok jack-cvs
All other spell use DEPENDS JACK-DRIVER.
Imho it is confusing if user is asked if he want to use "none, jack or 
jack-cvs". Moreover jack and jack-cvs conflicts each other. So if user 
choose jack with one spell, jack-cvs with second spell, jack with third 
spell, ..., it is only uselessly compiling. Do we really test all spells 
with DEPENDS JACK-DRIVER if they are really OK with both jack and jack-cvs?

Another example apache. More confusing.
I know users wondering why we have only apache 1.3.37.
They just "cast apache" and are shocked because they were expecting last 
apache version 2.2.3.
When I recomended apache2, they were still unhappy because they got 
apache 2.0.59. So trying another spell, apache22.
They only wanted to install last apache and had to cast all branches.
Really confusing, not only for users. ;-)
Furthermore when I told we have PROVIDES APACHE (apache, apache-mod_ssl, 
apache2, apache22, httpd-dev) they usually tried "cast APACHE" (it 
doesn't work :-().

Some projects have not only one stable version. They have several stable 
branches.
It was/is useful for me to have these branches in DETAILS. For example 
gnutls has now 4 branches "DEFAULT 1.0 1.2 1.4".
Of course most of users use only DEFAULT. Now DEFAULT=1.4 but before it 
was 1.2 and who wanted could try to cast version 1.4 with some spells.
There were/are? situations when spell A needed 1.2 and spell B needed 
1.4. User could quickly cast any branch.
There are situation when I need A and it is no problem for me if B is 
temporarily broken (of course it is not recommended for novices :-)).

Imho, if different versions of spell can be installed together, they 
can/have to have two different spells.
For example gnupg (1.4.5) and gnupg-exp (1.9.91).

--
Ladislav Hagara