Re: [Caml-list] opam and godi

[Anil Madhavapeddy <anil@recoil.org>]

On 21 Jul 2013, at 14:54, "Gerd Stolpmann" <info@gerd-stolpmann.de> wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>> could someone explain please the relation between godi and opam ? Is it
>> concurrent ?
>> Godi has been there for some time, and works quite nicely. So what are
>> differences ?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> both are independent projects. OPAM is a younger project, and I don't
> really know what the motivation behind it is (in addition to the generic
> motication to hack something). There were initially claims to make it is
> easier to package software up, but what I've seen is actually not much
> different from GODI (actually even worse now that GODI allows it to fully
> automate package releases).

The answer's right there on the front page:

"OPAM is a source-based package manager for OCaml. It supports multiple
simultaneous compiler installations, flexible package constraints, and a
Git-friendly development workflow."

> The feature sets are not the same, and some stuff works better in OPAM and
> some in GODI. As I'm advocating the latter, let me point out some features
> where I think GODI is better:

Feature minutiae aside, I'd say the biggest benefit of OPAM is the more
open development workflow. It's easier for people to maintain their
own branches and contribute changes to the central repository.

Let's look at the stable repository "pulse":
https://github.com/OCamlPro/opam-repository/pulse/monthly

It tells us that in the last month, there have been 30 authors that have
pushed 167 package updates. These have all come in as pull requests that
can still be browsed.  For example, see the latest Core from Jane Street:
https://github.com/OCamlPro/opam-repository/pulls?state=closed

Several development groups also maintain their own remotes without any
need to depend on the central repository. For example, see Citrix's:
https://github.com/xapi-project/opam-repo-dev/tree/master/packages

As Gerd points out, GODI is an older and more mature project. I find
OPAM more useful for my own personal development workflow though. You
should try both out and see which one you prefer.

cheers,
Anil