Dieter Plaetinck <dieter@plaetinck.be> writes:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:40:55 +0200 Alexander Rødseth <rodseth@gmail.com> wrote:
However, I also wonder, if you were to write AIF from scratch, how would you do it?
if i would rewrite it, i'ld do it in python. bash has many limitations which i needed to work around (specifically wrt modules that need to override/inherit stuff, datastructures to describe complicated filesystem arrangements (json, yaml?) and other datastructures to pass data around (lists, dictionaries) would be useful) that said, you often just want to execute commands directly. for that, it's hard to beat bash.
While in general I wouldn't prefer it over python, I think ruby hits a fairly sweet spot here.
And, would it make sense to have "machine configuration packages" that could be search and installed by users, so that setting up an Arch box as say, a media server, would be as easy as "aif -S mediaserver"?
a package is not the right thing to use. it's not easy to quickly customize, and you're bound by the limits of what a package can do. a config file for an installer (like aif) is more appropriate.
Strong +1 . I think there could be something to be said for purpose-tailored 'sets of software and configs' that encompass more than one peice of software, but packages aren't the right abstraction. -- Jeremiah Dodds github: https://github.com/jdodds irc : exhortatory