[Lazarus] An online package manager

[Kostas Michalopoulos]

Of course I meant that I would *NOT* make this more complicated than
necessary...

On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 3:47 AM, Kostas Michalopoulos <
badsectoracula at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would make this more complicated than absolutely necessary.
>
> lpk files have version and dependency information. AFAIK that is all you
> need to get a minimum working package manager using a central repository
> although i'd like to see multiple repositories that provide packages (f.e.
> personally i'd prefer to host my own packages on my server).
>
> IMO what needs to be done is quite simple:
>
>  1. Have the downloadable packages be a zip file (tons of tools can make
> them, Lazarus can read them, etc) with the package directory as it should
> be after installation, with the lpk and all.
>  2. Once a package is uploaded to a repository, it should extract the lpk
> file so that it can show information about the package in a web view and...
>  3.  Lazarus can download a list of available packages from a repository
> and when requested, it will download the lpk file to show the details. Once
> the user decides to download a package, the full zip is downloaded with the
> dependencies (if they are not already installed) and have them extracted in
> some place (user designated or just C:\lazarus\downloaded or something like
> that) and the lpk files installed.
>  4. Done. Restart Lazarus for the new stuff to take effect.
>
> I know that there might be some minor issues or things people would like
> (like multiple lpk files or even separate metadata file, a format with
> better compression, a better gui, etc) but really those can be done later
> and IMO the majority of packages will work just fine with this setup. The
> other things like comments, rating, etc can also be done later.
>
> I think that if something is going to be done, it needs to be the minimal
> work that needs to get things going because otherwise, it will get stalled
> (and it has been a while I hear about an online package installer :-P).
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 9, 2015 at 2:11 AM, Juha Manninen <juha.manninen62 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Aug 8, 2015 at 4:27 PM, Aradeonas <aradeonas at operamail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Is there any work on this subject until now or any one like to work on
>> this
>> > subject? If yes I want to help.
>>
>> The fppkg is for FPC packages. It does not work with Lazarus packages.
>> There is a GUI for fppkg in Lazarus named LazarusPackageManager but it
>> is broken. It should be fixed or removed.
>>
>> We need a similar system for Lazarus packages and maybe other Lazarus
>> resources.
>> The idea is not new and there is even some skeleton code for it in
>> package "Aarre". Nothing functional yet unfortunately.
>>
>> Studying this issue has been on my ToDo list for long. Some open
>> questions :
>>
>> 1. How much synergy with fppkg should it have? Can it share code?
>>
>> 2. Meta-package file format? I guess it should be a GZip package
>> containing Lazarus package sources + other metadata. What other
>> resources should be supported? More metadata is needed.
>>
>> 3. Support for user comments and votes for the packages. The GUI in
>> Lazarus must support adding and viewing them.
>>
>> 4. List of servers. Initially it should be CCR but can be extended.
>> The ideal situation is that all package authors provide such
>> meta-packages somewhere.
>>
>> 5. A website. Is it needed to find the packages and advertise them?
>> This may have synergy with fppkg again.
>>
>> If you are serious about this project, you should study the issue and
>> make a plan with some diagrams even.
>> I believe a SVN branch in Lazarus repo can be organized if needed.
>> If fppkg code must be refactored and then reused, it may be easier to
>> first fork it and then later offer to FPC project as a patch.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Juha
>>
>> --
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>>
>
>
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