Re: [gentoo-dev] FreeBSD ports...gentoo portage.....new mac/bsd package system

[Daniel Robbins]

On Tue, 2002-02-26 at 17:32, mikepolniak wrote:
> The originator of the Free BSD ports system, Jordan K. Hubbard now Engineering
> Manager, BSD technology group Apple Computer, posted a lengthy note to the
> darwin-dev list about a package system for Apple/BSD:
>  http://www.macgimp.org/article.php?sid=95
>
> His note was more a prophetic admonition, but he did propose five characteristics
> of what the package system should do/be:
> 1. XML-based descriptive file
> 2. make files no longer mandatory
> 3. treat it like a database
> 4. abstract packaging rules to integrate various formats
> 5. have an architecture prepared for GUI front-ends
>
> I thought the gentoo developers would like to read this and perhaps comment
> about how gentoo  portage is evolving as the package system of the future.

Yep, I read that and sent Jordan an email.  The most important aspect of
a "next-generation" packaging system is for it to be designed in a
friendly and elegant way so that it is a pleasure to use, whether from
the command-line or GUI.  I think we will, at some point, extend guide
XML (what we use on the Web site) and add an XML description for each
package.  However, the down and dirty stuff should be kept in the
.ebuild file for easy access.  It can easily be extracted from the
ebuild and converted into XML automatically.  Just my opinion, not yet
filtered through our developers and their particular insights.

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins                                  <drobbins@g.o>
Chief Architect/President                       http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.