Goals for first release (June/USENIX)

[Rahul Siddharthan]

Chris Pressey said on Mar 11, 2004 at 20:18:01:
> Regarding packages, there was a small brainstorming session on them on
> IRC.  I'm fairly neutral on most aspects of it, but one thing did come
> up that also affects the install program and possibly other parts of
> DFly eventually, so I should mention it: the UI.
> 
> There's a general feeling that the UI should be abstract.  That is, we
> shouldn't tie ourselves down to one sort of interface (like curses.) 
> The frontend and the backend should be seperated, so that different
> backends (package manager, installer, etc) can use different front ends
> (curses, web interface, etc.)
> 
> There's a couple of ways to go about this.  We could use an API - but
> that ties us into a particular language (or set of languages that
> implement the bindings.)  I think it would be better to use IPC.

What's wrong with command-line tools, and building graphical
front-ends (if required) for these tools?  To me that seems more like
the "Unix way".

Besides, if Matt's ideas about the VFS environment really work out,
all operations will probably be simple enough to implement from
scratch in a few lines of your chosen language...

Rahul