Gabor Szabo wrote:
Should the applications come with all the dependencies? There are a few examples such as Krang and Smolder.
It depends on the application I suppose, but it's certainly something that application developers should consider. I really really like how easy it is to install stuff on OS X - Something.app is really a folder that contains everything that an application needs. It could even include a perl binary along with compiled XS modules.
Of course, it's Hard to bundle dependencies - and build them for the target machine - while still being portable.
Should the applications come in binary format (.deb, .rpm)? This will be to a restricted number of platforms as the developers don't have the expertise or the hardware or the time to build all the versions.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a web service that you could submit a distribution to and have it ask a few questions and then give you back a .deb or .rpm or whatever, including all the magic to specify dependencies on libraries and other binaries. I have no idea how easy it is to build a .deb while running on Redhat (or vice versa) but with the advent of easy virtualisation even that isn't an insurmountable problem.
Perhaps someone who has more time available than I do (and who knows more about packaging) should apply for a perl foundation grant to get this going :-)
-- David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence
