[Catalog-sig] PyCon sprint for PEPs 314 and 243?

[Richard Jones]

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On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 11:23 am, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 31, 2004 at 08:28:35PM +1100, Richard Jones wrote:
> >Without looking into it too closely, it seems like yum is closely tied to
> > RPMs and their associated package databases.
>
> I would suspect that the code for handling mirror lists and downloading of
> files is not at all tied to the RPM file format.  That code has had
> something like a year of development on it, and probably can be used with
> few changes.

It's been pointed out that yum is GPL, which precludes any of its code going 
into Python. We might be able to learn from its design though when we address 
downloading from mirrors.


> There are 3 different downloaded file types: RPM packages, RPM headers, and
> the repository information.  The repository information would probably
> require some tweeks, and the RPM packages and headers would need to be
> replaced with something else.  Unless we were to decide to use RPM as the
> package format.  Which is probably also not a bad idea.

I don't see what RPM gains us over the sdist format.


> >Also, I'm not sure I want to try to solve dependencies.
>
> I'm not sure you have a choice not to.  I'm also not sure it's as hard a
> problem as some people seem to think.  Red Hat and Debian have fairly good
> solutions to this problem with years and years of thought behind them.

No, I do have a choice not to, and I choose not to :)

I simply don't have time or energy to try to address the issue *correctly* at 
the moment. I *believe* I have time and energy available to try to address 
the other issue of source package upload. That's it. Things for some other 
day are:

- - fetching of source packages by anything other than a web browser or
  ftp program
- - keeping a database of installed packages
- - using dependencies to figure out what else needs to be installed

As with PyPI, I'm attempting to just bite off a little bit so I actually have 
a chance of it getting *done* :)

Of course, this is just me talking. If someone else does want to bite off the 
whole lot, and has the time and energy to stick it through to completion, 
then I'm perfectly happy to let them, and I'll even make supportive noises 
every now and then :)


    Richard
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