DIP11: Automatic downloading of libraries

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 6/15/11 7:53 AM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:47:01 -0400, Adam D. Ruppe
> <destructionator at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> BTW, I don't think it should be limited to just passing a
>> url to the helper program.
>>
>> I'd do it something like this:
>>
>> dget module.name url_from_pragma
>
> I still don't like the url being stored in the source file -- where
> *specifically* on the network to get the file has nothing to do with
> compiling the code, and fixing a path problem shouldn't involve editing
> a source file -- there is too much risk.

First, clearly we need command-line equivalents for the pragmas. They 
can be subsequently loaded from a config file. The embedded URLs are for 
people who want to distribute libraries without requiring their users to 
change their config files. I think that simplifies matters for many. 
Again - the ULTIMATE place where dependencies exist is in the source files.

> For comparison, you don't have to specify a full path to the compiler of
> where to get modules, they are specified relative to the configured
> include paths. I think this model works well, and we should be able to
> re-use it for this purpose also. You could even just use urls as include
> paths:
>
> -Ihttp://www.dsource.org/projects/dcollections/import

I also think that model works well, except HTTP does not offer search 
the same way a filesystem does. You could do that with FTP though.


Andrei