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I've notice a pattern emerging here. OK... the pattern has existed for a |
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long time, but with the advent of systems ala portage that allow lusers to |
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keep their systems up to date with bleeding edge software... and said lusers |
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lack of knowledge of what they are getting into... said pattern is becoming |
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visable to people who don't know better. |
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|
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These same people, in turn, bitch to those who do... wasting our time |
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reporting 'bugs' that we are already aware of. While most of the time, said |
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'bugs' are out of our hands. |
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|
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Examples: |
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Zope still using python 2.1 instead of 2.2... |
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xcdroast using an older version of mkisofs... |
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qt, kde-libs, gnome-libs, etc all using older versions of libpng... |
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|
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To me this is an issue with dependency calculations. Gentoo will blindly |
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update a package regardless of what other packages depend on it. This |
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solution works great for those who want to keep thier systems bleeding edge. |
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However, some users are willing to make a sacrifice and go for less-bleeding |
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edge. For those users, before mentioned pattern causes HUGH problems. |
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|
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The fix? In a word, sacrifice. Give the user a choice. Let the user decide |
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if they want to shoot themselves in the head by going with BLEEDING edge |
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(developers), or if they want to shoot themselves in the foot by using a more |
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cautious dependency calculation algorhythm. (lusers) |
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|
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example: Upgrading to mkisofs 1.15a21 will break xcdroast |
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|
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xcdroast needs mkisofs 1.15a20 |
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cdrecord needs mkisofs 1.15a21 (it doesn't but this is an example) |
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|
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Tell the user of the conflict, and ask them which path they want to choose. |
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|
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The results: A choice in how anal the dependancy calculations are. |
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|
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The goal is to ALWAYS keep the system as bleeding-edge as possible, upon user |
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choice, back off on certain packages to fullfill said dependancies. |
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|
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At the very least, let the user know where the dependancy issues are! |
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|
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===== |
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--- |
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"To thine own self be true." - Shakespeare |
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|
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__________________________________________________ |
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