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Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 10:21:17 +0200
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From: Heiko Muenkel <muenkel@tnt.uni-hannover.de>
To: ware@cis.ohio-state.edu
Cc: xemacs-beta@xemacs.org
Subject: Re: Goals for the packaging system
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>>>>> "Pete" == Pete Ware <ware@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes:

    Pete> ((package-name (version-info md5-checksum (site-name
    Pete> path-to-package) ...) ...) ...)

    Pete> So, an example might be (for only two packages; it extends
    Pete> to more):

    Pete> ((auctex (9.6m f7119968ab86e42fb60030918d8b4d06
    Pete> (ftp.sunsite.auc.dk
    Pete> /pub/emacs/auctex/ftp/auctex/auctex-9.6m.tar.gz)
    Pete> (ftp.xemacs.org
    Pete> /pub/xemacs-20.1/packages/auctex/auctex-9.6m.tar.gz) )) (w3
    Pete> (1.103 0ae103e96b372f0be770edebc23637ac (ftp.xemacs.org
    Pete> /pub/xemacs-20.1/packages/w3/w3-1.103.tar.gz))))

I think, that it should also be possible to get the latest version of
a package. But this leads to some problems:

1. An md5 checksum makes only sense, if it is stored in the core
   XEmacs, so this is useless for package updates. Wouldn't a pgp sign
   of the author be better for this propose? 

2. A newer version of a package could break other packages, which uses
   it. To overcome these problems we should implement one or more of
   the following points:
	- the possibility to get the version of a package which was
	  tested by the XEmacs beta testers; this should be the
	  default, so that's more likely that novice users get a working
	  XEmacs;
	- every package should contain also the versions of the
	  foreign packages, which are used for it and which are known
	  to work with it; there should be also a way to get all the
	  foreign packages with the needed versions;
	- and as a long time goal (maybe for a new lisp engine): we
	  need a way to define an interface of a package, which
	  shouldn't be changed from package version to package
	  version, so that an author of another package could be sure,
	  that his package won't break in the future caused by the 
	  deletion of a foreign symbol (I think Kyle knows about these
	  problems);


Regards,

Heiko

PS: The rest of your proposal looks fine for me.

