what i don't like about dub

[Luís Ferreira]

On Tue, 2021-11-23 at 01:19 +0000, Alain De Vos via Digitalmars-d-learn
wrote:
> What i don't like about dub is that is does not check which 
> software is installed on the host.
> Currentlu tck86 is installed on the host including header files & 
> shared libraries.
> But dub says let me just download my own personal version and i 
> will compile it in your home directory
> /home/myuser/.dub
> There is something inherently wrong in doing so.
> 
> Note other package managers of different languages do the same 
> thing.
> dub should really check if something should really be downloaded.
> Otherwise you end up in a library hell, in Gates words known as 
> dll hell.

I can totally understand your point on this. I think dub lacks a lot of
important features and behave wrongly in a lot of different ways:

1) it should search for dependencies instead of downloading and
compiling them.
2) it should have/use a standard user and system path or pkg-config to
check for dependencies
3) it should use XDG base directory paths to store cache, config and
data files.
4) if the user prefers to download and compile the dependencies, it
should provide a mechanism to isolate the environment
5) it should use a correct mechanism to do incremental compilation
instead of compiling everything in one compiler invocation by default
6) it should be able to install packages correctly with pkg-config or
other similar mechanisms, providing a correct way for the packagers to
manage dependencies externally

I have some strong opinions on this. These are some real problems of
dub that I see as a blocker. Doing packaging right is the cornerstone
of a growing and healthy ecosystem.

-- 
Sincerely,
Luís Ferreira @ lsferreira.net

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