Online Package System?

Strange, but I've never thought or heard of any package system a' la 'ports' or 'fink' available for NeXT systems.

With all the new packages and libraries available, not to mention all the third party stuff in various repo mirrors, maybe it's worth back-porting Fink?

Quote from: "itomato"Strange, but I've never thought or heard of any package system a' la 'ports' or 'fink' available for NeXT systems.

With all the new packages and libraries available, not to mention all the third party stuff in various repo mirrors, maybe it's worth back-porting Fink?

Something like fink, etc would be great, but how many people actually compile stuff on their systems these days?  Most ports are never the "same."  Even a slightly newer version can require a completely different "patch."   It'd take more than a few dedicated people to manage a "ports" system.   I personally would love to see it & I'd be willing to help.  The only problem is, I don't have "hours" a week to dedicate to something like this.  Probably only one or two.   Take care

Steve

Maybe it would even more interesting with application or application package management, just like a kind of NeXTAppStore !

but someone would have an online server to let it work.

Quote from: "oneNeXT"application or application package management, just like a kind of NeXTAppStore !

Yeah, that's sort of the idea - I'm not thinking in terms of local package builds - like gentoo uses, but more like an intermediary to an online package database.

There would be means to install and manage packages through Installer.app, with a simpler path to installation than ftp, gunzip, (uncompress/gnutar), etc.

An online package repository and corresponding database with info, metadata, etc.

'fooapp install os42-user-patch4-m68k bash dhcp ssh modernlib-dev...'

A GUI wrapper would be pretty painless to put together, after that.

I'm not familiar with apt, but I do agree that a ports-alike system would be useless on non-x86 systems. Something like the RedHat Package Manager (or whatever similar app Linux users use these days) would be sufficient.

Here is the basic functionality for those not familiar:

1. a single-window GUI with tabs for "installed packages", "not installed packages", "available updates" and "settings";
2. the option to specify a repository (local or remote folder with pre-built packages);
3. automatic dependency detection and resolving;
4. the first two tabs divided into 2 panes - the top pane for browsing through categories (organized as folders) and selecting packages, and the bottom one for displaying package information;