[pacman-dev] Maelstrom(Pacman in C#) project brief

Georg Grabler ggrabler at gmail.com
Mon Jul 23 11:30:48 EDT 2007


I rather tend the other way. Gnome gets the better environment, and by far
more support by commercial distributions. Anyway, the KDE guys are doing a
good job, and i think they might have the state of the most modern DE for
linux again, once KDE4 is released.

I enjoy KDE, since i never could work productively in Gnome. There are a lot
of great tools around for gnome, but i don't care any longer if the tool is
QT or Gnome / GTK, since pierres gave me the hint of qt-curve. I just use
the ones i like better (in this case, Firefox in example).

I don't want a flamewar about the better DE now, both, Gnome and KDE have
their things i prefer and dislike, even XFCE and Enlightenment are quite
good.

I think the people are satisfied with the pacman interface for their
console, and are missing good GUI clients for it. That's why they pay more
attention to Whirlwind, as i do.

Don't get under the wheel, you did a great work on this. As long as it stays
compatible to pacman (keeps updating the pacman database), i don't see a
problem with any kind of gui or client for pacman.

Yours,
Georg

On 7/23/07, Bozhidar Batsov <lordbad at e-card.bg> wrote:
>
> Any feedback is most welcome and I read it all the way no matter how
> long it is. BTW I personally enjoy python very much, but I'm a hardcore
> GNOME user and dislike QT(although I confess that KDE is the better DE
> for the moment). I'm just so used to GTK apps that I can't look at QT
> apps for a long time without my head starting to hurt. It seems to me
> that most people pay more attention to Whirlwind, but I want to assure
> all the command-line addicts(like me) that maelstrom will have a very
> capable console client. Actually I work on it far more than on the
> gui(for now at least).
>
> Best Regards,
> Bozhidar Batsov
>
> Georg Grabler wrote:
> > So go for it.
> > I bet a couple of users will like it, and use it, as they use other
> > projects. I personally also would like it, for the simple reason that
> > i'd have it easier to get people to use arch.
> >
> > I'm thinking about a friend of mine (as well as some guys at work
> > here). He plays one computer game, which has a native linux
> > distribution of the software, which runs perfectly on arch. He'd like
> > to use Linux on his desktop. He's the typical office user (MSN, ICQ,
> > Office, Printing, E-Mail and this Game).
> >
> > Thus, he is a typical windows user, and telling him how the
> > application works is by far easier than giving him the hard truth
> > about linux and commandline.
> >
> > I'll hopefully soon be working again on pyalpm and a pyQT client,
> > hopefully Cx will help me some (or i can help them with their pyQT
> > client project). Havn't had much contact, maybe he's lost in the few
> > lines i wrote, since a lot of them are replaceable by new features the
> > alpm gained in the past month.
> >
> > I'd never say that i wouldn't use the project myself. Maybe i like it
> > in the end, and to be true, i already liked the interface you provided
> > (screenshots).
> >
> > I just want to tell you, of course, a native one always was "cleaner"
> > "nicer" and "sexy", but it definitely re invents the wheel, for the
> > reason that the code will be written twice. Also, maybe you come up
> > with ideas how things could be implemented in pacman, since you seem
> > to have plenty experience, also in c/c++ development.
> >
> > I've chosen pyrex for the same reason as you the native re-write: i
> > didn't like the procedural API interface of alpm - but it gets better
> > every day. Even when i'm currently not working on my projects, i
> > follow the development lists carefully.
> >
> > If you want that project - do it. As i said, a lot of people will
> > appreciate it.
> >
> > Also, why i considered this memory leak things is, that i may would
> > like some background application searching for updates, providing a
> > systray entry if updates are available (as other tools do). Though,
> > this would need a different / faster / less system consuming operation
> > for checking updates (as taking the provided rss feeds), but it would
> > be possible, and a very nice feature.
> >
> > Yours,
> > Georg
> >
> > PS: i know i write too much, hope you even want to read it ;)
> >
> > On 7/23/07, *Bozhidar Batsov* < lordbad at e-card.bg
> > <mailto:lordbad at e-card.bg>> wrote:
> >
> >     Georg Grabler wrote:
> >     > That's a fine point, Gabriel.
> >     > I just thought the same about my servers, by reading your message.
> >     >
> >     > Especially virtual servers it would take enough space then.
> >     >
> >     > Arch isn't a focused desktop distribution. Anyway, the team is
> >     working
> >     > hard to make pacman / alpm better (providing a better interface).
> In
> >     > the current state, they work towards to get by default
> >     compatible swig
> >     > bindings (at least the approach seems to be quite clear and clean,
> >     > following the git), what means you can also build your application
> >     > upon the alpm binding for C#.
> >     >
> >     > I also think that re-inventing the wheel isn't what should be
> done,
> >     > especially not in such a "small" project. Of course, desktop
> >     > environments and applications also often re-invent features.
> >     >
> >     > What i really appreciate are the features your client seems to
> have.
> >     > That's a huge piece of work you've done, and basically what i'd
> >     like
> >     > to see for pacman. GTK/QT interfaces for the original ALPM, for
> >     every
> >     > kind of desktop user.
> >     >
> >     > I've been working some time now on pyalpm to make a compatible
> >     client.
> >     > I just don't get along, since my work still eats me up, and the
> >     > critsit won't end, as it seems.
> >     >
> >     > Yours,
> >     > Georg
> >     >
> >     > On 7/23/07, *Gabriel C* <nix.or.die at googlemail.com
> >     <mailto:nix.or.die at googlemail.com>
> >     > <mailto: nix.or.die at googlemail.com
> >     <mailto:nix.or.die at googlemail.com>>> wrote:
> >     >
> >     >     Bozhidar Batsov wrote:
> >     >     > VMiklos wrote:
> >     >     >> Hello,
> >     >     >>
> >     >     >> Na Fri, Jul 20, 2007 at 05:40:40PM +0300, Bozhidar Batsov
> >     >     <lordbad at e-card.bg <mailto:lordbad at e-card.bg>
> >     <mailto:lordbad at e-card.bg <mailto:lordbad at e-card.bg>>> pisal(a):
> >     >     >>
> >     >     >>> Well I have no intention to fork Arch. I strive to make a
> >     >     product 100%
> >     >     >>> compatible with the existing, but I want to offer
> >     through it a few
> >     >     >>> things that are missing in pacman and a couple of newer
> >     >     technologies. I
> >     >     >>> don't think that mono is a bad thing just because .NET is
> a
> >     >     Microsoft
> >     >     >>> product. After all Miguel de Icaza has stated many times
> >     that
> >     >     if he had
> >     >     >>> mono 8 years ago there wouldn't be one line of C code in
> >     GNOME. I
> >     >     >>> personally consider it to be a much better framework than
> >     >     java. Style
> >     >     >>> and consistency are almost perfect here. Pascal notation
> >     for
> >     >     methods,
> >     >     >>> camel for vars, great generics, great datatypes,
> security...
> >     >     >>>
> >     >     >> let's say you would write this in python or perl, we
> >     would have
> >     >     the same
> >     >     >> problem: pacman is a lowlevel tool, it should be fast and
> >     have
> >     >     as less
> >     >     >> deps as possible. mono can be a great tool but are you sure
> >     >     it's nice to
> >     >     >> have the whole mono framework in an install cd?
> >     >     >>
> >     >     >> - VMiklos
> >     >     >>
> >     >
> >     >     >>
> >     >     > Not exactly so. For one thing there are many popular
> programs
> >     >     build with
> >     >     > mono today - beagle, f-spot, tomboy, muine and others so
> >     you are
> >     >     likely
> >     >     > having the framework installed anyway. There are talks
> >     that soon
> >     >     mono
> >     >     > will be accepted as an official dependency in GNOME.
> >     >
> >     >     All the programs you are talking about are almost broken but
> is
> >     >     not the point here.
> >     >
> >     >     You think to much about 'installations with an DESKTOP/X'
> >     that is.
> >     >
> >     >     *Why* do you think I would install _mono_ ( about 70MB bloat
> >     ) on
> >     >     my _servers_ ?
> >     >
> >     >     Just to run an PM ?
> >     >
> >     >
> >     >     Gabriel
> >     >
> >     >     _______________________________________________
> >     >     pacman-dev mailing list
> >     >     pacman-dev at archlinux.org <mailto:pacman-dev at archlinux.org>
> >     <mailto:pacman-dev at archlinux.org <mailto:pacman-dev at archlinux.org>>
> >     >     http://archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/pacman-dev
> >     >     <http://archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/pacman-dev>
> >     >
> >     >
> >     >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >     >
> >     > _______________________________________________
> >     > pacman-dev mailing list
> >     > pacman-dev at archlinux.org <mailto:pacman-dev at archlinux.org>
> >     > http://archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/pacman-dev
> >     >
> >     I don't see how 70MB are so crucial, but everyone has different
> >     opinion
> >     on every subject. I have 370GB HDD on my home PC, and don't
> >     imagine that
> >     there are many PC's left with 5GB drives around so 70MB doesn't
> >     seen so
> >     much. As I previously stated bindings do not reflect the true
> >     nature of
> >     C# and produce fairly ugly code, so I prefer to do stuff natively.
> On
> >     the subject of possible memory leaks on behalf of mono, I'd like
> >     to say
> >     that this is not an app that runs 24/7(Maelstrom or Whirlwind). A
> >     typical session is over for a couple of minutes so there is little
> >     danger of leaks as they tend to manifest in longer running apps.
> >     And of
> >     course the goal of the project is not to reinvent the wheel, but to
> >     build a better wheel so out car could run faster and be equiped with
> >     more features - for example maelstrom has support for package
> >     categories, something which seems to be ignored in arch - they are
> >     implemented with filtering regular expressions and are very helpful
> >     especially for a GUI client. Color support in the terminal is
> >     native, no
> >     patches required, and the conf file is scheduled to be enhanced as
> >     well
> >     with additional options... So these huge 70MB may not go to waste
> >     completely in the end...
> >
> >     _______________________________________________
> >     pacman-dev mailing list
> >     pacman-dev at archlinux.org <mailto:pacman-dev at archlinux.org>
> >     http://archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/pacman-dev
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > pacman-dev mailing list
> > pacman-dev at archlinux.org
> > http://archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/pacman-dev
> >
>
>
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