Re: Hating up2date

[prev] [thread] [next] [lurker] [Date index for 2006/10/24]

From: jrodman
Subject: Re: Hating up2date
Date: 04:37 on 24 Oct 2006
On Tue, Oct 24, 2006 at 03:43:58AM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
> 
> On 24 Oct 2006, at 03:11, Sean Conner wrote:
> 
> >  apt-get, emerge, yum, ports, they're all hateful.
> >
> >	GenericUnixPrompt> yum install foobar
> >	Sorry, I can't find that package.
> >
> >What?  I can't just use the generic name by which *everybody* calls  
> >it to
> >get the latest and greatest?  No no nooooo!  I have to search  
> >through the
> >database to find the *exact* version string you compare against.
> >
> >	GenericUnixPrompt> yum install foobard-stable-4.3.2.4.x86.bin
> 
> My favourite version of this hate is 'dig' on Debian, it's a popular
> program, so in the fucked up crazy world i'd live in, i'd expect
> 
> 	apt-get install dig
> 
> to work. but of course ...
> 
> 	E: Couldn't find package dig


While on the one hand, I think your idea of expecting all programs to be
in packages of the same name is not a good requirement for a packaging
system, it of course points to the lack of an obvious way to say 'give
me the package that supplies program foo'.  

There are such tools for Debian, multiple of them!  And they tend to get
stale and break.  And then tend to need you to manually update their
databases (plural) with 10+meg downloads.  And they tend to suck.

Hate.

> p.s. and lets not even go into the pain that is trying to use CPAN
> and a package manager.

The biggest problem I have with CPAN is the contents.  Packaging tools
only go so far, taste is also an ingredient for a good system.

(And no, I'm not bitching (here) about the language, but the about the
poor quality of the stuff shoveled into CPAN.)

-josh
There's stuff above here

Generated at 20:01 on 07 Nov 2006 by mariachi 0.52