[Savannah-hackers] submission of The Abstract Packaging Tool - savannah.nongnu.org

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Anand Murugesan <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
License: gpl
Other License: 
Package: The Abstract Packaging Tool
System name: jpack
Type: non-GNU

Description:
Problem Statement:
Currently the Installer development community of the software industry is 
bogged down by the complexity and diversity of the software packaging standards 
and tools that exists in different operating systems.
For solaris, we have Solaris Packages. For linux, we have RPM's and more. For 
Windows we have MSI and what not. So, the software package developer needs to 
be an expert in all these operating systems and also needs to re-code his 
software packages for every operating system he is willing to distribute his 
software on. This is a time consuming and painful process.  With the advent of 
Java, programers are able to make ups of the "write once and run anywhere" 
paradigm.  But, its not true with the software packaging technologies that are 
around today for various operating systems.  The Software packaging 
technologies like Solaris SVR4 packages, Windows MSIs and Linux RPMs are quite 
complicated and requires indepth knowledge to develop these. 

Proposed Solution :
"JPack" is an initiative to develop a Java and XML bases software packaging 
abstract layer.  The developers can abstract out their sofware packages using 
XML package descriptors.  Java and XML based framework or tool thats proposed 
here, can process these XML based abstract packages to generate the platform 
dependent software packages.  We can convert the platform neutral abstract 
software packages  into any platform specific software package.

This alleviates the pain the software programmers has to go through in 
mastering all these software packaging technologies.  Developers can spend time 
in actually developing the software in a platform neutral way, than worrying 
about packging them.

The Abstract Package can be defined using an XML file called the package 
schema.  The schema will be constantly evolving.  But it needs  to be backward 
compatible, like the JDK.

Right now only 3 software package formats are identified to be implemented.  
Solaris SVR4, RPM and MSI.  It future, this list will grow depending on the 
demand and the contributes.



Other Software Required:
JDK and XML parser (perferably JAXB)

Other Comments:
This project is at its inception phase.  I am shopping for somebody to host my 
project.


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