A Joeish Erlang distribution (long)

[Ulf Wiger]

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Joakim G. wrote:

>Erlang is ready for an alternative distribution.

Hmm. The idea of introducing a different packaging and
documentation without spawning off another Erlang code base
might work, if someone is willing to champion it.

Couldn't one create a "profile" with a certain collection of
applications, and then have an installation procedure
similar to e.g. Cygwin, RPM or FreeBSD?

Basically, you would download a small installation program
which reads a text file, identifying the applications
(+ vsn) that should be downloaded -- and from where. One
could later use the same installation program to add other
programs (for example mnemosyne, if one really wants to make
complex queries), and upgrade the profile or a specific
application. Given a list of web servers, the tool could
perform a web query to find which applications are available
(very similar to RPM.)

The idea of providing a certain profile would be to allow
people to get started quickly, and also that the
applications in the profile would be "certified" by someone.
One could then also provide profile-oriented documentation
and tutorials on some appropriate web server.

/Uffe
-- 
Ulf Wiger, Senior Specialist,
   / / /   Architecture & Design of Carrier-Class Software
  / / /    Strategic Product & System Management
 / / /     Ericsson Telecom AB, ATM Multiservice Networks