Re: libapt-pkg introduction

[berenger.morel@neutralite.org]

Le 25.10.2013 15:46, David Kalnischkies a écrit :
> > > I guess part of the reason is that all simple examples are either
> > > incomplete or no longer simple.
> >
> > Do you have any idea of where could be one of the incomplete ones?
> > I do not need something which is really doing a useful job, I need 
> > something
> > which shows the init process ( I have seen some "init" functions in
> > python-apt... ).
> > When I'll have that, with the doc and apt/aptitude to reverse, I 
> > should be
> > fine and will hopefully be able to quickly have very basic tools.
>
> You could have a look at the proof-of-concept reimplementation of
> apt-show-versions in C++(11): [what is the state on that anyway?]

C++11 rewrite? I'm not against that, but I wonder what is the interest? 
Rewrite just to rewrite seems like a loss of time (but on the other 
hand, I tried some perl programming and never had source code that I 
could say maintainable. But it's probably because I do not know perl 
enough.).

> It shows at least how to init various datastructures we use and do 
> stuff
> with them - even though all it does is read-only operations. The 
> source
> code for 'apt-get download' can show you how you can ask the system 
> to
> download packages for you,

Those seems to be good starting points. Then, there are documentation 
and more complex source codes from apt-get and aptitude.

> > > Legend has it that apt-get and friends are demos on
> > > how package management could be done (with libapt) until the 
> > > implementation
> > > of the graphical 'apt' would be completed. It's at least how I 
> > > interpret
> > > some of the ancient writings.
> >
> > Aptitude to do black magic must be acquired by pain :)
> >
> > > [It was (of course) never completed.]
> >
> > aptitude-gtk works, I think. At least, it did when I tried it 3 
> > years ago...
> > There is also synaptic which is used by a lot of people. But when I 
> > tried
> > the graphical things, I was no longer able to intuitively use my 
> > keyboard to
> > do what I wanted, so I quickly came back to my good old aptitude.
>
> What I meant with 'ancient writings' are mails in the archives of 
> this
> list from 1997 which mention a graphical interface being in 
> development.

I guess so, but with the terms "legend", and given that I often feel 
like people looks at me as if I was a sorcerer, I thought that it was 
funny to use "ancient writings".

> My last information regarding aptitude-gtk is btw that it is 
> unmaintained and
> no longer build by default. Maybe you want to take over by adding 
> keyboard-
> driven interactions to it. ;) Aptitude developers will know more 
> about that.

I am slowly "coming back" to terminal softwares for lot of uses, and am 
pretty happy with that, more than with most graphical soft. So if I want 
to contribute to some aptitude's part, it will be the ncurse one :)

> > PS: no need for cc ;)
>
> I wasn't sure. Its usually the default on debian lists to not CC, but 
> so
> is <80 chars on a line… I see that playing safe was wrong this time, 
> sry.

No problem, I'm new on that mailing list so you could not know that I 
subscribed.

Thanks for your replies, I think I have enough to start playing now.