[plt-scheme] PLaneT and FFI

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 11:58:38 -0500, Dave Herman <dherman at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> > The downside here is that you don't automatically get the neccessary C
> > libraries.  But if PLaneT solved that too, on all of our platforms, he
> > would get the Nobel Prize instead of a degree.
> 
> Well, if the writer of the planet library knows where the C library can
> be downloaded from, the module could automatically download it and
> install it in a planet subdirectory in an analogous fashion to the way
> planet modules are downloaded.

How would this work for packages which have binary versions only on
some subset of our platforms?  Or packages with dependencies?  Or
packages with installer scripts (like PLT Scheme)?  Or packages that
needed to be compiled from source?  Or packages that wanted to run as
their own user (like PostgreSQL)?

The only systems (such as Debian) that have done something like that
have required use of a standard package format,  and had to be
installed globally installed on the system.  And have only worked on
one OS.

-- 
sam th
samth at ccs.neu.edu