Re: RES: package system modification (module loaders)

[skaller <skaller@...>]

On Sun, 2005-01-16 at 04:23, Adrián Pérez wrote:

> > As a newbie, I can't even *find* the modules people talk about.
> 
> Just take a look at the «Libraries and Bindings» page at the Lua-users 
> wiki:
> http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaAddons

I have, but I found it confusing.

> And that afirmation from Skaller saying "can't even find modules" 
> demostrates that we need the standard packaging system, and we need it 
> now. Now modules might be hard to find; but if modules are "hard to 
> find", they're "even harder to install"!!!

The problem is the same with Ocaml: it uses a Cathedral + Bazaar model.
The core developers provide the compiler and a minimal standard library,
and leave the rest up to the community.

Unfortunately communities lack the organisational power of a
small, dedicated team, and members of the community often
seem to be left wondering how to best make their contributions.

> I strongly believe that all the efforts that we, all the Lua community, 
> are making towards standarization in module packaging worths adding a 
> new feature to the Lua core.

I can't argue either way on that, but I do believe that
a standardised packaging protocol -- whether or not it
is supported by core language features -- is essential
to foster interoperability, and that, after discussion,
the core compiler team really has to be responsible for
specifying it.

I.e. I suspect that whilst the community at large will happily
populate a package database, they haven't the 'intellect' as
a group to design it.

BTW: people refer to 'the packaging proposal' .. where is it?


-- 
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
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