Re: Adding stuff to the core distro (was Re: Infix syntax)

[Bill Gribble]

On Thu, 2002-10-10 at 11:06, Daniel Skarda wrote:
>   So these were my arguments I could think of. Please try to write down your
> oppinions. I would also like to hear arguments from "the other side" (break
> Guile into small and orthogonal packages), but I can not think of any benefit
> that would come from scattered development (except specific "beauty").

Deployability.  I'd like to be able to pick and choose which pieces of
guile library functionality I need to install on a target platform --
for example, I have an actual client who I am actually delivering a
guile application running on a Compaq iPaq running Linux.  It's a very
small platform, and if I have to pull in every SRFI, an Emacs debugger
interface, and all of the Gnome and Gtk libraries to install guile,
that's a problem for me. 

I agree that for building general hacking interest it's good to have the
kitchen sink and all.  But that's just a piece of the puzzle -- for
guile to be successful, it has to have long-term usefulness as a tool
that can be used by people getting paid to use it.  Perl wouldn't be
perl if it was just fun to hack stuff up with it -- people push on it
because they use it in their jobs. 

Personally, I have been using debian for so long that I don't want to
follow anything in CVS unless I'm hacking on it myself.  From my POV if
it's manageably decomposed in debian, apt will do the thinking for me
and if I want a new shiny widget it's easy to install it. 

b.g.