Re: Mirrors et al.
On Mon, 29 Apr 1996, Craig Sanders wrote:
> Who else *needs* a version number for Debian? I don't. I don't care. All
> I care about is the version numbers of the individual packages I've
> installed, and I can check those at any time with 'dpkg -l'
I do. I care. When I retrieve packages via FTP I get them over a 2400 bps
modem (no I didn't forget a zero :-). At that speed it is out of the
question to download every package that changes, I can only get important
bug fixes by FTP. When I want more than that I buy a CD. The problem with
not having version numbers is that a given CD may only contain a few
packages that I don't already have, and those may only be bug fixes for
packages that I don't use. Not the best way to spend my $30. Another
problem with not having version numbers relates to interdependencies
between packages. Debian packages relate to one another through
'depends', 'reccomends', 'provides', and 'conflicts' as well as through
their placement of various files on an installed system. Without version
numbers, every time I download a new Packages file I risks having to
download a large number of new packages because of changes to
dependencies and conflicts (I learned this one the hard way).
> Admittedly, the difference between 0.93 and 1.1 is pretty important
> but after 1.1 is released, the debian version number wont matter at
> all.
>From reading the 'Debian Maintainer's FAQ' I notice that there are long
range plans for internationalization and for supporting multiple
architectures. From my experience working for as a software developer for
a company that went through both of these I would say that these have the
potential for being as big a change as the aout to ELF change.
IMHO the solution that the Debian developers have come up with is a very
good one since it give a lot of flexibility. There are the 'stable' and
'unstable' symlinks for people who don't care about version numbers, and
there are the numbered versions for people (like me) who do.
Steven Bosnick
sbosnick@uoguelph.ca
VP External
Philosophy Department Graduate Students' Association
University of Guelph University of Guelph
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