Re: Question of if a contribution like this would be entertained?
On 23 September 2016 at 14:08, David Kalnischkies <david@kalnischkies.de> wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 12:09:36PM +0100, Eric Curtin wrote:
>> Would a contribution be entertained that enabled some packages to
>> start installing while the packages are still being downloaded? It
>> bugs me when I am waiting for a large package to download (say firefox
>> or a bigger package), whilst in the meantime all the other packages
>> could have been unpackages/installed/whatever.
>
> Theoretically possible of course, in practice you will run in a lovely
> stream of problems which make it questionable if the added complexity is
> justified. For example: You need to get packages in a proper order, we
> kinda do it already, but you need to be sure and block until everything
> you need to unpack & configure this subset is downloaded otherwise bad
> things happen (and that subset might very well involve hundreds of
> packages, so you really have to design for it).
>
> It also means that the download methods must be in a workable state
> regardless of the rest of the system. A simple method which e.g calls
> another program like ssh is no longer guarenteed to work for example as
> openssh isn't an essential package. And even more complex methods like
> https or tor+http depend on external libraries and services which might
> or might not be in an operational state. Or simpler: Your entire network
> connection might be brought down while the packages responsible for it
> are upgraded.
>
> If that wouldn't be enough already you have all sorts of user interface
> problems as you have to intermix progress reporting with package
> configuration asking questions, apt hooks like apt-listchanges become
> useless [for people who use it as a confirmation step] and and and…
>
>
> I don't want to discourage you from trying, but you are by far not the
> first person to have this "simple" idea. Attempting this needs a good
> plan, dedication to detail and a good grasp on what the two subsystems
> you are trying to merge actually do – spoiler: They are pretty complex.
> I would suggest picking much smaller projects first to get a feeling.
> Rome wasn't built in a day.
>
>
> Best regards
>
> David Kalnischkies
Hi David,
I thought this might be the kind of answer I was going to get, if it was
simple it would have been done already and of course because I am not
involved with the project I don't think of the integration with the UI etc. like
you do. Any task lying around that I could do just to get my head around
the codebase?
Regards,
Eric
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