Re: Ada Operating System

[Preben Randhol <randhol+abuse@pvv.org>]

On Sat, 16 Mar 2002 20:07:45 GMT, Robert A Duff wrote:
> James Ross <rem.jr@rem.webross.com> writes:
> 
>>   - Uninstall should leave nothing behind (nor side effects)
> 
> Yeah.  Why do Unix and Windows applications scatter pieces of themselves
> all over the place?  Why is "install" more complicated than a copy (with
> maybe a decompression)?  Why is "uninstall" more complicated than
> deleting a directory tree?

Because it makes sense to share files between programs in many cases. I
mean you can have data/picture files that more than one program use.
Config files are needed to start daemons etc and it is nice to have them
at one place rather than all over the disc. Libraries are another reason
(and perhaps most important).

Of course the main point is dependancy. I mean wheter the program is
installed in one directory or in several doesn't matter much if your
system has dependancy inconsistencies. That is missing libraries,
data-files, needed external programs etc... The package system that
Debian Linux uses, called Deb (and also RPM which Redhat and others use),
takes care of this for you. 

If I want to install gtkada development package I say:

apt-get install libgtkada1-dev

and then the system checks to see if I'm missing (or if I need a newer
version) any of the packages this package is dependant on and installs
them too.

As for libgtkada1-dev it dependance is such:

Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.4-4), libglade0, libglib1.2 (>= 1.2.0),
libgnat-3.13p-1 (>= 3.13p-5) | gnat (<< 3.14), libgnat-3.13p-1 (>=
3.13p-5) | gnat (>= 3.13p-5), libgtk1.2 (>= 1.2.10-2.1), libgtkada1 (>=
1.2.12-4), libgtkada1-glade (>= 1.2.12-4), xlibs (>> 4.1.0), libgtkada1
(= 1.2.12-4), libgtkada1-gnome (= 1.2.12-4), libgtkada1-glade (=
1.2.12-4), libc6-dev, libgtk1.2-dev, gnat (>= 3.13p-5), libgl-dev,
libgdk-pixbuf-dev, libglade-dev, libgnome-dev, libpopt-dev, rcs

If I want to remove libgtkada1-dev then I do:

apt-get remove libgtkada1-dev

and to upgrade my entire system I symply do:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
-- 
Preben Randhol         �For me, Ada95 puts back the joy in programming.�