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Re: Bug#44871: dhelp: dh_dhelp doesn't work with debhelper (at least 2.0.43)



Josip Rodin wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 12, 1999 at 05:23:16PM +0000, Marco Budde wrote:
> > No, that´s wrong. I wouldn´t recommend using doc-base as it slows don´t
> > the whole installation process! dhelp is a C program using a db database.
> > doc-base is written in perl and as all perl scripts its awful slow.
> > 
> > In fact doc-base is useless. It´s better to add direct dhelp and dwww
> > support to package (no real problem as my package comes with a dhelp to
> > dwww offline converter).
> 
> Would any of the doc-base supporters from the debian-doc list care to
> comment on this?

<flame on>

Well, I'll just note that:

1) Install-info is also a perl script and I've never heard anyone complaining.
2) Tons of debian is implemented as shell scripts, which are far slower 
   than perl, and I don't hear any complaining.
3) Perl scripts being slow is mostly a myth. People who say this are often
   not aware that perl is compiled before it is run; it is not a traditional
   interpreted language. And C isn't always fast; look at dpkg!
4) Throwing away a good design in favor of a bad design because the bad
   design is currently implemented faster is always a mistake. By Marco's
   reasoning, we should use rpm as well, since it's faster.

It's easy to get the impression install-docs is slow if you try to benchmark
it. But in reality most of the slowdown is because it internally calls
update-menus. Which is not a problem if you're installing more than one
package as it's a one time cost.

-- 
see shy jo

[1] Ever tried dpkg --search '*', like /etc/cron.daily/dwww does? It's great
    fun!


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