[racket-dev] Updating dependency packages from other sources

I think that's a better idea Matthew.

On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 2:27 PM, Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu> wrote:
> At Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:07:07 -0400, Asumu Takikawa wrote:
>> On 2013-08-15 08:19:06 -0600, Jay McCarthy wrote:
>> > As for what we could do going forward, I think either of these
>> > approaches could be 'automated'.
>>
>> Yes, that'd be great.
>>
>> > For instance, we could add a command like
>> >
>> > $ raco pkg replace x11 new-x11-source
>> >
>> > This would behave like either of those (which would be invisible to the user).
>> >
>> > Do you have any opinions about how you'd want to do this replacement?
>>
>> Maybe `raco pkg install` can have an additional flag that lets you
>> replace existing packages? Or maybe it should allow conflicts if the
>> package has the same name as an already installed package (possibly
>> prompting/warning the user)?
>
> How about allowing a package source as an argument to `raco pkg update`?
>
> After all, removing an old package implementation and installing a new
> one is already the job of `raco pkg update`, not `raco pkg install`.
>
> Then again, dealing with package sources and recording a new
> name->source mapping is already the job of `raco pkg install`, not
> `raco pkg update`.
>
> I lean toward changing `raco pkg update`, because I think it's
> reasonable to treat a package source other than a package name as a
> "replace" request by default. In contrast, I don't think `raco pkg
> install` should ever overwrite an existing package implementation by
> default.
>
> For example, I can imagine
>
>  raco pkg install stuff.zip
>  ... get a new "stuff.zip" ...
>  raco pkg update stuff.zip
>
> and that seems better to me than
>
>  raco pkg install stuff.zip
>  ... get a new "stuff.zip" ...
>  raco pkg install --replace stuff.zip
>
> I have in mind that `raco pkg update` would treat as package name as it
> does now, instead of like other package sources. That is, it would
> update based on how the package was previously installed. There's a
> difference only if the package was installed from a package source
> other than a package name, though.
>
> Naturally, the special treatment of package names would necessitate a
> new flag for consistent treatment of package sources. Specifically, if
> you wanted to replace an existing package installation with a catalog
> reference, then you'd have to use a flag to `raco pkg update'.
>



-- 
Jay McCarthy <jay at cs.byu.edu>
Assistant Professor / Brigham Young University
http://faculty.cs.byu.edu/~jay

"The glory of God is Intelligence" - D&C 93