On second thought, I'll have to think more about
`http://example.com/racket/<PACKAGENAME>/<VERSIONSTRING>` URLs, as well
as about the home page URLs.
Main question is what URL should people use in `require` forms, if they
want to live a little dangerously and always get the latest
stable-branch version of the package, even if it breaks the API for
which they coded. `latest` or `stable` for the <VERSIONSTRING> would be
easy to do. But would also be nice to have
`http://example.com/racket/<PACKAGENAME>` without the <VERSIONSTRING> do
something sensible in `require` forms, maybe the latest stable-branch
version.
Also, later, I might add URLs with symlink <VERSIONSTRING>s with `+` on
the end, so that `http://example.com/racket/foo/1.4+` means "latest
version of package `foo` in branch that is backward-compatible with
1.4". Kludgey, but it would work, and is simple. (`+` is problematic
in URLs, due to historical kludges of some URL libraries converting it
to a space character, but that can be worked around.)
Neil V.
Neil Van Dyke wrote on 11/23/2014 10:28 PM:
Thanks, Matthew. I have to rework McFly and my package release setup
for the new package system soon, and I plan to work around the 18
files then.
I don't know that my plan is relevant to anyone else, but here it is:
* Make distributions (and packages?) include the documentation files
however they're generated by the current release version of Racket at
the time the package version is released.
* Host the package version distributions (with versions in URLs) on my
Web site. Probably URLs like
"http://example.com/racket/<PACKAGENAME>/<VERSIONSTRING>/".
* Change how I make the Web home page for each package. Currently,
each home page is a verbatim copy the Scribble-produced files for the
latest released version of the package. How I plan to change this is,
instead of using the Scribble-produced 18 files verbatim, a script
will take only the generated `.html` file and any image files, and
tweak the HTML slightly to fit into the Web site without all the
dependencies. That works around the 18 files bloat for me, although I
have to do upfront work, and I might have to do maintenance work some
of the times that a new Racket version changes the HTML.
* Change the package home page urls (e.g.,
"http://example.com/racket-charterm/";) to fit within the same URL tree
that serves the new package versions (e.g.,
"http://example.com/racket/charterm/";).
Basically, I'm trying to get back to good-quality package version
releases being quick&easy to do. The overhead of additional upfront
and ongoing maintenance work on tools is not entirely consistent with
quick&easy productivity on the packages, but hopefully I'll find time
around Christmas.
Neil V.
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