Re: Upgrading without central packaging

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Michael G Schwern wrote (crammed together here) 2005-04-23  6:53 (-0700):
>Ithinkyoumissthepoint.IshareJuerd'shatefortheMacbecauseI,too,amIDebianu
>ser.IseeitevenclearerbecauseIusefinkwhichgivesmeaptfor*some*ofmyMacsoft
>ware.AnotherperfectexampleistheCPANshellforPerlmodulesvs,say,keepingyou
>rJavalibrariesuptodate.Itsnotaboutmakingasinglepieceofsoftwareeasytoins
>tall,that'sbeendone,itsaboutmakingtheentiresystemeasytokeepup-to-date.O
>nceyoucaneasilycheckwhat'sup-to-dateyounolongerhavepeopleusingancient,b
>uggyversionsofsoftwarejustbecausetheydon'twant/careaboutdoingtheperiodi
>cchoreofmanuallycheckingalltheirsoftware."Updateallthesoftwareonmymachi
>ne"shouldbeonecommand.Idon'tcarehowitdoesit,justdoit.Idon'twanttohaveto
>golookupanddownloadeachindividualpieceofsoftware.Siteslikemacupdateandv
>ersiontrackerjustreducetheconstantonanO(n)operation(wheren==thenumberof
>appsinstalled)butitremainsanO(n)taskfortheuser.ItshouldbeO(1).MostLinux
>en,FreeBSDandPerlmakeitO(1).ThosesystemsallexistedbeforeOSXdid.Applesho
>uldbeabletofigureitout.Nocomplexpackagingsystemorregistryisrequiredbeca
>useApplealreadyhassuchasystem,the.appbundle.Itcouldhavebeensomethingass
>impleasanextrafileinthe.appdirectorydescribingwheretocheckforanddownloa
>dthelatestversion.Thedetailsofthisdoesn'tmatter,itsalongsincesolvedprob
>lem.Hell,ifAppleweresmartthey'dprovideamirrorforeverybodywhowantedone,l
>ikeDebianandCPANdo,soyoudon'tevenhavetoworryabouttheauthor'sdownloadsit
>egoingdown.Aprogramthensearchesall.appsand.pkgreceiptsforthese,checksea
>choneagainstthenamedsiteandifanupgradeisnecessaryitdownloads,mountsandc
>opiestheapp.Evenifitdidn'tdothecopystep--justcheckforwhat'soutofdate,do
>wnloadthenewversionsandmountthem--thiswouldbeaGreatLeapForwardinmaintai
>nability.MakeitpartofSoftwareUpdate.Itsaveryrotetask.Computersareforrot
>etasks.Themosthatefulsoftwareisthatwhichturnsusersintoclick-monkeysforc
>omputers.

Schwern++


Juerd
-- 
http://convolution.nl/maak_juerd_blij.html
http://convolution.nl/make_juerd_happy.html 
http://convolution.nl/gajigu_juerd_n.html

• Michael G Schwern 14:53 on 23 Apr 2005
  • peter (Peter da Silva) 15:50 on 23 Apr 2005
    • Michael G Schwern 17:15 on 23 Apr 2005
      • too deep to show
  • Juerd 16:30 on 23 Apr 2005
  • Robert G. Werner 22:02 on 23 Apr 2005
    • Michael G Schwern 22:41 on 23 Apr 2005
      • too deep to show
• Juerd 16:25 on 23 Apr 2005
  • peter (Peter da Silva) 23:03 on 23 Apr 2005
    • Abigail 23:23 on 23 Apr 2005
    • Juerd 23:48 on 23 Apr 2005
      • too deep to show
    • Subversion (was: Re: Upgrading without central packaging) Robin Stephenson 15:01 on 26 Apr 2005
      • too deep to show

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