new sysinstall

[Ben Laurie]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
>     What I am currently proposing:
> 
>     * Place Apache, PHP4, lynx, and some sort of browser (if we can get it to
>       fit) on the live CD.
> 
>     * Use Apache and PHP4 as the backend to the installer, lynx as the 
>       character terminal frontend, or a browser as the graphical frontend.
>       The installation code would be written primarily in PHP4.
> 
>     * The PHP4 code could make use of a simple database and the existing
>       RCNG scripts to hold onto persistent data and execute its various
>       functions.
> 
>     Problems with using high level languages like Ruby, Python, etc...
> 
>     * They have big library dependancy sets, which makes them somewhat fragile
>       in regards to us being able to generate a release environment (everything
>       is a moving target).

Is that truer for Python than PHP4? Most of Python's library
dependencies are for its own libraries - the core language hardly needs
anything. And PHP builds in a pile of weird shit, too.

>     * They have a big CD footprint.
> 
>     * There are issues with having multiple versions installed... a
>       'system' version installed by the CD which is often older then
>       the current release version that you might need in production.

Why is this not so for PHP?

Cheers,

Ben.

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