Hi,

I looked at recent svn commits and wondered, what is aarre?

BTW: there is a typo in aarreupdatelist.lpr:
Application.Title:='Aaree update list';

Vincent

No idea, but google suggests it is finnish for treasure.

Where is this "aarreupdatelist.lpr" b.t.w.?

Bart

2012/9/3 Bart :

So maybe Juha knows what Mattias is doing ;-)

Where is this "aarreupdatelist.lpr" b.t.w.?

/trunk/components/aarre/tools/aarreupdatelist.lpr

Vincent

Hi, I looked at recent svn commits and wondered, what is aarre?

"Aarre" is finnish for "treasure". Maybe the name
will change.

BTW: there is a typo in aarreupdatelist.lpr: Application.Title:='Aaree update list';

Thanks for the hint. Fixed.

The tool is barely started. The goal is to scan a directory and gather information about all lpk files.

Mattias

Vincent Snijders wrote

> No idea, but google suggests it is finnish for treasure. So maybe Juha knows what Mattias is doing ;-)

It is related to a new Lazarus package repository, enabling easy search and installation of packages from there.
I feel it is an important feature. Many other languages / programming environments are popular because they have a comprehensive and easily accessible package repository,

A unique name for such thing is difficult to find - using English language - and Mattias suggested using another language like Finnish. A word "aarrearkku" (treasure box) popped to mind and it was shortened to "aarre".
This is the same tactics Ubuntu uses BTW, and I like it. I only wonder how people will pronounce it. Here 'R' pronounces like in Spanish (caRamba) and 'RR' is double as strong. The name can be changed if people don't like it.

Juha

P.S.
Regards from Holland. I am happy I went!

Juha Manninen wrote

The name can be changed if people don't like it.

Maybe an acronym?

All Addons Rapid Repositry Environment, or short AARRE

:-)
Hmmmmm....

Juha

2012/9/4 Juha Manninen :

CLAN
(Comprehensive Lazarus Archive Network)

Bernd wrote

CLAN (Comprehensive Lazarus Archive Network)

That already means "Community Local Area Network" and many other things.

Yet, I don't say it is a bad thing because most acronyms are "taken" and the context would reveal what it means.

Juha

Nothing wrong with a backronym for those of us who compulsively want everything to make sense in English ;)

Though I'd prefer:
Advanced Addon Robust Repository Environment
... though I'm sure there are many words with A,R, and E that can be substituted ;)

Concerning the idea: having a easily accessible package repository seems like a good idea indeed, especially if it <sorry, feature request as usual>can include links to packages maintained elsewhere (e.g. the synapse trunk svn) as there will be people/groups that want to maintain their own product totally</feature request>

Well, I'll shut up now, easy to spout feature requests/criticize before an alpha release...

Thanks for starting this,
Reinier

Bernd wrote

CLAN (Comprehensive Lazarus Archive Network)

Better a "Comprehensive Pascal Archive Network"

:D

SCNR
Michael

or PRANK = Pascal RAD Archive NetworK

:J
CHMBIDWT.

L.

The opinions and ideas are important.
My idea also was to have links to packages maintained elsewhere. However the stability of the repository would suffer. The linked servers can have downtimes or can disappear. Copying a stable version of those packages to the Lazarus repository would solve some maintenance problems.
Yet, the repository surely needs a maintainer and co-operation with the package authors.
Does anyone know how Perl (CPAN) and other similar systems do it. I understand they have have copied the packages and mirror the server. Some other repositories use links, eg. many Linux distributions.

There are many things involved. Many versions of the same package must be supported etc.
It can grow into a very complex system which is not the goal now.

The GUI in Lazarus could allow searching and installing, but also voting for the quality of the packages.
There are many possibilities.

Juha

Sorry, no experience there.

There are many things involved. Many versions of the same package must be supported etc. It can grow into a very complex system which is not the goal now.

:)
Starting simple, finding out what works, and only then increasing scope is a concept that has worked well for me at least ;) Much better than writing up all possible use cases and getting lost in functionality that 1% of the users will ever want.
If linked packages doesn't fit into the current ideas, no problem ;) If it turns out to be something that is desired later on, perhaps it can be added without too much trouble.

The GUI in Lazarus could allow searching and installing, but also voting for the quality of the packages.

If you support voting as well as provide some indication of where the package comes from (i.e. the main repo or a linked repo maintained by somebody else), I think having links is very valuable. Your idea of having a stable version of a package in the main Lazarus repo would solve reliability/availability issues, while external devs could ask their advanced users/people depending on newly released fixes to use linked packages...

I think the big advantage of linked packages is that it much easier for devs to provide support for this - they presumably have to fill out some description file, zip/compress their package and provide a download link with the result... Not much hassle and no need to contact those poor, overworked, central repository guys ;)
While the stability etc of this link cannot be guaranteed, as you see, it is still much better than the current situation: a user has to search through the wiki, and perhaps forum, to find where to download a package. At least a (central+linked) package system will be a very good incentive to provide one big central list of available packages.

There are many possibilities.

Yep.
I'd also prefer to have something small that just works and that we can experiment with now, and improve as we go along (as long as we're not afraid to reorganize things as long as it's in testing mode).

English has no problem with that, in fact it explains Long John Silver's "Aarre, Jim lad" :-)

Aarre has the benefit of being distinctive. If an English word is preferred it could be called "chest", which describes the container, rather than the contents.

Howard

2012/9/4 Juha Manninen :

How about

FPCCR: Free Pascal Code and Component Repository

making use of the already established and well known acronyms CCR and FP and FPC and then somehow merging it all into one repository with only one compatible set of tools to browse and install them?

Juha Manninen wrote

It is related to a new Lazarus package repository, enabling easy search and installation of packages from there.

Isn't that exactly what fppkg was designed for?

Regards,
- Graeme -

That's what I thought as well....

Regards,
Sven

fppkg should be supported. There is already an IDE plugin although it needs some work.
But fppkg is more like a distribution, that means the packages must have a valid fpmake file and must be uploaded to it. This implies a few restrictions on the package layout and dependencies. There are many third party packages that don't fit into that scheme, but they do have lpk files. aarre can gather information about those lpk files. With this information we may find a solution.

Mattias