Re: [9fans] Man pages for add-ons

["Patrick Kelly" <kameo76890@gmail.com>]

>On my part I guess I'm assuming complexity will come, whether we like
>it or not. I don't find it easy to believe that we can avoid
>complexity forever, and I get the feeling some relatively rapid growth
>is coming.

Yes, but should that complexity be needless? I understand that as features
are added, they add complexity. But does the complexity added always justify
the addition of the feature? Features should be carefully thought out, not
added because someone foresees an unlikely or avoidable problem, or wants
the system to do everything for oneself.

>Could Plan 9 grows to the point of having many GUI
>applications and many facilities to support those apps and it still
>get by without any sort of package manager?

In my opinion, package managers are only a solution for systems that are
already a mess. I've said it before, I downright hate Windows, but it gets
by just fine without a package manager; Just install and uninstall
'scripts'. Those scripts wouldn't even need to be necessary on Plan 9, or
any system that doesn't maliciously abuse a central configuration system.

>Heh, actually I hope we
>can.

As do I.

>I was involved with maintaining a linux distro for a few years
>and even given a much saner base system I'm not keen on taking up
>package maintenance again. A script or two to help find what was
>installed might be just the thing, and let "upstream" sort out whether
>their code works with anyone else's.

People doing some actual work, *gasp*.
Heck, it's more sane than some solutions I've heard.

>--
>Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. -- Alan Perlis