On Monday 17 March 2003 09:00 am, Alain Penders wrote:
> http://cvs.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/gentoo-src/cursingcow/
>
> That's the installer that's currently being worked on.  Most recent
> change: 8 weeks ago.

I've worked with Java considerably.  It would be a good choice for most 
purposes, including something such as this.  However, Gentoo is generally 
built around python, which is a great language as well for many of the 
same reasons.  

Ultimately, we could do the Gentoo toolchain any languages -- java, perl, 
tcl, ruby, etc.   Parts of the toolchain are in some of these languages.  
However, python (by-and-large) is the standard at Gentoo.

Just my $.02/.01€/.02¥/.01£/etc:

We should be working to switch any of the existing toolchain that ISN'T 
python (bash, perl, whatever) to be redone in python.   New tools should 
be written in python only, and we deviate from this policy only when it's 
absolutely essential to do so.

The consistency of using a coding standard such as that would simplify 
(reducing the dependencies in the toolchain) and lower the required QA 
effort of the entire project down the road.  

Finally, I generally agree with drobbins that XML should be used whenever 
possible.  Including changelogs.

If an effort is made to adhere to this coding standard, Gentoo will mature 
in a faster, more predictable fashion... possibly at the expense of a few 
gurus in other languages.  I myself am no expert in python, but I'm 
prepared to be for Gentoo.  

I would hate to see someone invest a lot of time in writing a tool for 
Gentoo that does its job well, but doesn't fit in very nicely with 
everything else.  It usually means the tool will get rewritten at some 
point in the future... thus we bump into the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Cheers,
Dylan Carlson

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