Re: [Tcllib-devel] Tcllib - Reopened discussion on what packages to putinto it.

[Andreas K. <aku...@sh...>]

 
> I'd prefer to see tklib and tcllib remain relatively self-
> enclosed. I understand having performance bumps if some other
> package is present. I even understand where perhaps additional
> functionality is available, if some particular version of tcl or
> some additional package (such as tls) were available.

> I would propose that collecting libraries that have other types of
> dependencies as an alternative.  Since we already see a resistance
> from certain parts of the community towards downloading additional
> packages, it would seem to me to be a move in the wrong direction to
> add even more dependencies to tcllib or tklib.
 
> In this way, people who want to minimize dependencies will continue
> to be assured that downloading tcllib will not result in the need
> for other items.

I am not sure that I can fully buy this argument ... It feels to me a
bit as taking Tcllib as one monolithic entity where you download all
and automatically need all dependencies of all contained packages as
well. Wheras actually you incur and need a dependency X if and only if
you use a package Y having that dependency.


> Of course, one could argue that just by getting the packages being
> proposed into a TEAPOT repository (along with their dependant
> extensions) one solves a lot of the issues up front.

This may or may not be true. Curently the only TEAPOT repository is
ActiveState's (*), and I cannot guarantuee that we will provide a
particular dependency. One factor will be the effort involved to get
it to compile on our machines, which depends on the number and
complexity of external dependencies of a package, whether the build
system is TEA based or not, and so on. That will have to be very much
a case-by-case decision. At least until some build standard gets fully
accepted (i.e. for older packages as well), which makes a Tcl analog
to CPANrun possible.

(*) Users of the Tcl Dev Kit v4 have all the pieces necessary to set
    up their own TEAPOT repository, however nobody seems to have done
    that, at least not a public one.

-- 
So long,
	Andreas Kupries <aku...@sh...>
			<http://www.purl.org/NET/akupries/>
	Developer @	<http://www.activestate.com/>
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