On Erlang distributions, bulding erlang

[Bengt Kleberg]

> From: Leon Smith <lps@REDACTED>
> To: erlang-questions@REDACTED
> Subject: On Erlang distributions
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 14:21:33 -0500
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> 
> I don't like the idea of fragmenting Erlang into multiple distributions, 
> unless we are going to have another implementation of Erlang.   However, 
> making a more modular distribution is in order.
> 
> Personally, I strongly dislike "make".   Makefiles are large, ugly, and 
> usually ad-hoc.  Different people use drastically different conventions.   
> For example, with the Erlang distribution, you can't cd into a given 
> directory that you've made some changes to and type "make" and "make install" 
> to update that directory alone.  Many other packages support this.

...deleted

> So, here is my idea:  strip down Erlang/OTP to the bare essentials.   Create 
> a simple, intelligent, distributed builld system, perhaps in the spirit of 
> Modula-3's quake.  Then, have all the non-core libraries and applications 
> relegated to separate packages.    Allow packages to be installed or updated 
> with one or two simple Erlang commands.  I don't think that basing this 
> system around RPM or Debian Packages is really worth the time and effort, nor 
> do I think these standards would give an erlang build system any significant 
> benefit.  
> 

there is a erlang ''make'' module that can be used once the
compiler/runtime is ready. only c source need a c compiler and the make
program (may it soon be replaced).


bengt