[maemo-developers] Automatic optification

[From: Marius Vollmer]

ext Graham Cobb <g+770 at cobb.uk.net> writes:

>> I still have to do something about the Python optification.  I will do
>> that in the next few days.  
>
> Thanks.  We really need this in order to turn on optification by default.

I have some first version of a test that tries to identify Python
packages in the maemo-optify Git repo.  It might just work.

>> My current idea is that we will have a rule that takes in ratios: You
>> need to have 20 times as many bytes (uncompressed) on the eMMC than on
>> the OneNAND.  The idea with this is that when all packages conform to
>> this, your will most probably run out of eMMC before you run out of
>> OneNAND.
>
> Can you explain that in more detail?  Do you mean that you will optify (move) 
> smaller and smaller files until you get to the right ratio and then
> stop?  

Yes, exactly.

> What if you can't get to the right ratio -- is that a failure?

No, it would just make a package that is not as optified as one would
hope.  It would be up to the QA process to decide how to proceed with
such a package.

> Are you still planning to allow the developer to override decisions?

Yes.  I should probably start with that, so that we can more easily
control the heuristic from the outside.

> Do we actually need that level of complexity?

With enough control over optification, hopefully not.

> I really don't like the idea of the optification changing between
> releases just because one file has changed size -- for example, I
> wouldn't want the developer to find that one of their files (e.g. a
> binary) has suddenly been moved because a different file (e.g.  a text
> file) has changed size.  That is asking for creating unexpected bugs.

Yes, good point.  But this can happen with any heuristic.  Now, if a
file gets bigger than 2k, it will suddenly be optified.  That might be
just as unexpected.

> I would prefer to keep the algorithm the same as we have now, as we have got 
> some experience with that, and turn on automatic optification with that 
> algorithm.

Yes, I agree.  So any change I'll make to the algorithm from now on will
be off by default.