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Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries
From: |
Mathieu Lirzin |
Subject: |
Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries |
Date: |
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 11:50:16 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.5 (gnu/linux) |
Hi,
Mark H Weaver <address@hidden> writes:
> Pjotr Prins <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> How about the following:
>>
>> 1. Separate from the GNU project, we create a number of registries of
>> online git repos without opinion (i.e., anything goes, it is up to
>> the authors). A registry can contain the work of multiple packages
>> and multiple authors.
>>
>> 2. Each repo in the registry can create package definitions online
>
> The major problem with this proposal is that, to the extent it became
> popular, it would drastically reduce the freedom we have to change Guix
> itself. We would need to start considering whether our changes might
> break externally maintained packages. A large proportion of our
> internal procedures and macros would effectively become a public API.
> We would no longer be able to freely make changes to the way packages
> are specified, or make incompatible changes to the procedures and macros
> used in package definitions on the client or build sides. We would be
> greatly constrained in our ability to make changes to the default phases
> in our build systems.
>
> Our core packages and most of our library packages would also
> effectively be part of this API. We would no longer be able to freely
> do things like split packages into smaller pieces or multiple outputs.
>
> Long ago, the Linux developers made a conscious decision to not support
> out-of-tree drivers, for much the same reasons. Many times over the
> years, they have made changes to their internal APIs that required
> corresponding changes to a large number of drivers. As a result, they
> have been able to keep their internal interfaces clean and free of
> backward-compatibility cruft.
>
> It's crucially important to the future vitality of this project that we
> retain our freedom to evolve the design of Guix, the way packages are
> specified in Guix, as well as the set of core packages. These freedoms
> will be drastically curtailed if we support a decentralized system of
> externally-managed repositories. Therefore, we must not do this.
>
> What do other people think?
I fully agree with everything you said.
When acknowledging all the consequences of providing a public API for
package definitions, the main goal of lowering the barrier to entry is
missed because everything becomes more complex.
--
Mathieu Lirzin
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, (continued)
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Pjotr Prins, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Mark H Weaver, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Jookia, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Jookia, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Ricardo Wurmus, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Pjotr Prins, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Leo Famulari, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Pjotr Prins, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries,
Mathieu Lirzin <=
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Ludovic Courtès, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Andreas Enge, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Jookia, 2016/07/24
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, Andreas Enge, 2016/07/24
- replying to a message of a mailing list you were not subscribed to, Danny Milosavljevic, 2016/07/24
- Re: replying to a message of a mailing list you were not subscribed to, Danny Milosavljevic, 2016/07/24
- Re: replying to a message of a mailing list you were not subscribed to, Ricardo Wurmus, 2016/07/25
- icecat "mailto" handler does not work - and cannot be reconfigured by user, Danny Milosavljevic, 2016/07/25
- Re: A registry for distributed sources and binaries, John Darrington, 2016/07/24
- Replying to bug reports, Ludovic Courtès, 2016/07/25