Fast text display?

[Mike Meyer]

Paul Rubin <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> writes:
>> > What about wxwidgets, which wxpython requires?  
>> 
>> If the package needs something and it's not installed, the package
>> system will get it and install it. That's the *point* of a package
>> system.
>
> Not really.  A package system turns a software distro into a single
> file you can install.  In some instances a package depends other
> packages and some package managers can then go chase down the
> dependencies, but that's not characteristic of packages per se, and
> while it's better than nothing, it's best to avoid it since the mechanism
> breaks a lot.  Tcl/tk is a boneheaded system in many ways, but it's
> been very successful partly through the strategy of avoiding installation
> hassle by minimizing dependencies.

The crucial word in what I said was "system". You're right that
packages per se don't handle dependencies. That's up to the package
system. In my experience, the "breaks a lot" depends on the system
you've got, and how you use it. I've spent a lot of time cursing RPMs
because the dependency system does seem to break a lot. On the other
hand, the only times I've had the FreeBSD package system break is when
I was trying to force it to build things that weren't in the package
system as supplied.

>> The package system can be configured in a number of different ways. My
>> configuration - with a broadband network connection - is to check the
>> local disk cache, then download anything that's missing. You can
>> preload the disk cache by doing "make fetch-recursive" if you
>> want. You can preload the cache by hand if you want, but the package
>> system is very picky about the version numbers of things it's trying
>> to build, so that'd be a pain.
>
> Best is to have just one package that doesn't depend on any other
> packages and doesn't need any further downloads, so once you've
> installed it, you're done.

This is the best solution for a naive user with a primitive package
system. If either condition doesn't hold, it's no longer clear that
that's the case. With a good package system, the dependencies will be
handled invisibly and transparently, and the only way to find out that
multiple packages were installed after you're done is by checking the
installed packages database. If the user is advanced, they may prefer
not to have multiple versions of the dependency installed, or that it
be installed where it's available to other packages instead of just
the installing package - or vice versa.

    <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.