[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Shared Libs and Application Installer

[From: Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri]

On 12/22/05, SillYcoNe <sillycone at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/22/05, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri <barbieri at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 12/22/05, Eduardo de Barros Lima <eblima at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hi list,
> > >
> > >     Working on hacking some gnome applications like Abiword, Gnumeric,
> > > Evince and Rhythmbox to Maemo Platform, I realized something
> > > important. All of them depend on libglade which is shipped within each
> > > package. So if you have at least two of above applications installed
> > > in your device and you want to remove one of them,  the other apps
> > > won't work anymore because libglade will be removed too.
> > >
> > >     A solution for this case would be create a separeted package for
> > > libglade, but i think if we have to do this job for each and every lib
> > > on the system, the application installer loses its meaning. An
> > > alternative was to link the library statically, but as we take so much
> > > care our free space, it would be a waste of it. I see libglade is
> > > included in the SDK image, but it is not in the product image, so I
> > > think the better solution is to include it in the newer versions.  Any
> > > comments?
> >
> > Hi Eduardo!
> >
> > That's in my list of "things to fix", together with installation on
> > MMC and enable users to share applications peer-to-peer (like Palm
> > users can "beam" each other).
> >
> > I need to implement my ideas and see how they fit into dpkg, probably
> > they don't, but the scracth is like this:
> >
> > You can install applications and they know their dependencies. When
> > you talk to the "server" (it can be an app server or other maemo user)
> > you'll get the list of dependencies, you'll reply with dependencies
> > you don't have, then together with the App, you'll get the
> > dependencies... transparent to user. Probably you will not distribute
> > an "abiword.deb" on your website but and "abiword.app", that will have
> > "abiword.deb" and "libglade.deb". If you already have libglade.deb, it
> > will not install it, just abiword.deb. This is a _scratch_, I'll write
> > some wiki pages on it before implementing.
> >
> > This is also related to other feature I want: to beam apps between
> > users. This system will need to "reconstruct" packages from installed
> > files, with safety to configuration files and also remember need
> > (pre/post) scripts.
>
> Isn'it possible to have dpkg work as on any desktop machine ?
> This way we would take advantage of any online deb source with 770
> binaries and the dependancies problem will taken care of by the
> installer.
> my 2 cents.

Then you assume that there is a repository and that everybody have
access to it. If that was the case, you would need not to re-create
packages from installed files. However you will loose the key feature
Palm users have: you can "beam" your app with one-click to your
friend. If you are about to go to a exam and want to share your
calculator to a friend, or about to travel and want to share a
map-viewer, you will know that this makes a lot of different! Since
most of our apps are free software, we should benefit from that!
--
Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri
--------------------------------------
Computer Engineer 2001 - UNICAMP
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