Re: [MIT-Scheme-devel] [commit aafa6ac04] Initial draft of program to grovel over files looking for libraries.

[Chris Hanson]

I'm a little confused about what the problem is. Could you give specific examples?

I'm also unsure about why having a file-system cache will help. Other than persistence, what advantage does having the cache in the file system provide? I can see an argument that the file system forces a particular organization to the cache, but the downside is that the implementation is more complex than one in memory.

I've been assuming that it's OK to have more than one library in a single file. The file-system approach doesn't handle that naturally, though multiple links to a single file is reasonable.

On Sat, Nov 24, 2018 at 8:27 AM Taylor R Campbell <address@hidden> wrote:

Having worked on various different packaging and library installation
systems, I've found it's always been a pain when there is either

(a) a loading process that takes time proportional to the number of
installed libraries (which either costs linear program startup time or
quadratic library installation time like TeX, and can make the mere
installation of a library cause a program that doesn't even use it to
behave differently), or

(b) a central cache file to reduce that cost, which has to be
maintained by a special-purpose program to install and deinstall
things (which doesn't have a natural merge operation that programs
like tar or system package installer tools already know about).

If we want libraries whose names are not tied to the file system, can
we at least use the file system itself as a cache and install them at
a predictable location for the loader?  E.g., when installing an sld
file that has a library named (frob/nozzle möller), can we just make a
file $libdir/mit-scheme-aarch64/sld/frob%2fnozzle/m%c3%b6ller with a
pointer (maybe a symlink) to the real library file?

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