Linux standards

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

David Kramer writes:
| On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, John Chambers wrote:
| > Jerry Feldman writes:
| > | Most of the better apps require the following steps:
| > | 1. ./configure [ configure arguments ]
| > | 2. make
| > | 3. become root.
| > | 4. make install
| > | 5. become non-root.
| >
| > Hey, you forgot a very common (and important) step:
| >   2.5. make test
|
| And the just-as-common (at least for big packages):
|     2.1. make coffee

Right you are.  But this can be hard to  configure  as  part  of  the
Makefile, because the net location of the coffee machine is so little
standardized.  Maybe we need to include this in our TODO list.  I can
see it now:
  ...
  Find coffee maker ... found ... filter filled ... brewing started.
  Your coffee supply is low.  Shall I order more? Y
  Ordering from supplier "Green Mountain" [Y/N] Y
  Order submitted .. verified.
  ...

| There's a problem with a universal packaging system that works across
| distros, and it was touched on at the meeting last night: file locations
| and formats.  ...

Well, I keep thinking of a somewhat higher-level  observation:   This
whole topic could be used as a good answer to the ongoing claims from
the MS crowd about "innovation".  The reason that linux systems  have
such  variety in their install packages is simply that there is a lot
of innovation going on.  Nobody thinks  that  any  of  the  available
install packages does everything right yet.  If a standard is decreed
too early, we will freeze the packages  and  halt  innovation.   Then
we'll have to live with mistakes forever, as MS developers do.

(Of course, there's the ongoing problem that tar and a makefile  seem
to  be  both  simpler  and more versatile than all the vendors' fancy
installation packages ...  ;-)