> It would be better for end users if we built standard rpm/deb/etc. > packages that integrate well with the rest of each Linux, OS X, > Solaris, Windows, etc., operating system, and of course regularly > tested that the full test suite passes on each system, and when > packages on those systems get old or too new, deal with those > problems. That would be wonderful. Unfortunately, we have to be > realistic, given the resources that we have available.
The problem is that, by relying on your own versions of many tools and libraries, you essentially prevent other people from helping you with packaging for those rpm/deb/etc. systems. Because those other people are now burdened with the task of separating those libraries and patching things on the Sage side. Which is harder for them, because they do not know what to watch out for. As a result, you are burdened with more work, because now _you_ have to take care of making Sage installation/compilation easy, instead of having distribution packagers take care of that. The consequence is clearly visible: there are no up-to-date packages of Sage for any of the Linux distributions. Which means that for many users, installing Sage is actually _harder_ than installing most other software. But don't get me wrong: I am definitely not saying that it is easy to make Sage deal with distribution-supplied libraries, and I fully understand the historical reasons for shipping Sage with such a large number of spkg's. What I am saying is that, in the long run, it is much better to steer clear of that. And therefore, that it would be unwise to add more of your own versions of libraries, _especially_ when it concerns libraries which every distribution already ships with (like gcc-lib). I can see that Macports is having problems with the 'we ship everything ourselves' logic, and I don't see how Sage is going to avoid that. Cheers, Kasper -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
