Hi all,
allow me to add my two cents here. I take this thread as some "collect ideas
and directions for a new {jh,}alfs". If this is not the case, than sorry, I
did missunderstood - ignore the rest.
I would like to add that one of the most disadvantages of the early alfs
project was that there was a need to generate a seperate set of files where
alfs can work on. This was fixed in jhalfs and therefore it was pretty easy
to use. Even on own deviations from the "standard" book (something like
uncommited version upgrades or so). For me, this is a plus when the tool can
directly act on the books sources, just as Jeremy previously said.
Or, what about a new form of package description files where a {jh,}alfs
program can easily act on and the books source (or major parts of it) could
be created out of them. This could be sets of files which are more
package-management-optimized. Dunno if this last sentences does make sense at
all.
Anyway, what I would say what is important for a new alfs is: Act directly on
the primary sources.
Now, the language a new tool may be written in. Using such a tool does not
raise the question in what language it is written and how does the output
(commands that will be executed) does look like. The prime focus should be
the usability. Btw, the UI of jhalfs is by far quite enough for such a kind
of tool. But from a development perspective, Python may not be the worst
choice. It seems to be very self-explaining and new developers seems to be
productive quite quick. But I also agree to what Bruce has said: The ease of
viewing etc.etc. is quite important, but if you write it in a readable way, C
could match that too. But at the end of the day it does not really matter as
long as the prerequisites to run the new tool are not to big. Just "download,
unpack, cd into, make and run" is what it should look like and this works on
full featured distros as well as on a quite newly set up LFS-system.
As a result, execution speed is by far not relevent for such a tool but the
ease of using the product but also the ease of develop it.
--
Thomas
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