Re: [Caml-list] We need a rich standard library distributed with OCaml, really

[Hendrik Boom <hendrik@topoi.pooq.com>]

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 06:14:18PM +0200, Francois Berenger wrote:
> On 08/31/2015 06:06 PM, Stéphane Glondu wrote:
> >Le 27/08/2015 10:17, Gabriel Scherer a écrit :
> >>Depending on external libraries used to be a problem when there was no
> >>consensus on OCaml packaging (no longer than a few years ago people
> >>where reluctant to even use ocamlfind). We now have a reasonable
> >>consensus on a packaging story, and installing third-party libraries
> >>has never been as easy as it is today -- except on Windows, meh.
> >>I think you should embrace the idea of depending on software outside
> >>the OCaml distribution.
> >
> >Depending on a multitude of external libraries makes packaging more
> >difficult. I am talking about "system" packaging (deb, rpm...) here, not
> >OPAM. And "install OPAM first" is not a very satisfactory way of
> >installing some software written in OCaml in a stable environment.
> 
> Why not?
> 
> In my experience, opam installs are quite reproducible.
> You can even specify the version number you want to install.
> 
> The only problem I see is that opam install things in a user's home
> directory, which is not what you want for a system-wise installation
> of a software/library.

So there should be a superuser option, telling opam to install in the
system-wide installation area.  Of course that wouldn't work if you 
don't have the relevant permissions, not should it.  And the details of 
the superuser option (such as where to install what) may be 
system-dependent.

There are Debian packages that access the net during installation; most 
notably some device drivers on Debian, where the manufacturer releases 
its own installation procedure, but does not allow redistribution.  So 
the Debian package, during installation, downloads the manufacturer's 
installer and executes it.

No reason why the, say ocaml packages shouldn't do likewise using 
opam.  One bit of hackery could wrap all the available opam packages.

--- hendrik