[Zope3-dev] Package is the wrong name for the things I called "Zope Packages".

[Tres Seaver]

On Tue, 2003-01-21 at 15:41, Shane Hathaway wrote:
> Jim Fulton wrote:
> > Shane Hathaway wrote:
> >> Since the only difference in the implementation between 
> >> distribution-type and development-type is a flag indicating whether 
> >> the software can be changed, and the user can toggle that flag at any 
> >> time, I would want the flag to be reflected in the names as an 
> >> adjective that infers minor change.  Hence open/closed bundle.
> > 
> > But the model you suggest may not be very useful. I'm pretty sure that this
> > shouldn't be such a lightweight operation. In any case, I would not assume
> > it is at this point.
> 
> FYI: I talked with Jim.  Packaging is focused more on customization of 
> installed software rather than changing installed software.  I had 
> forgotten this distinction for a moment.  Customization is important for 
> nearly all users.
> 
> It's still important to be able to change installed software, but that 
> is generally an activity only for developers of that software, so it 
> doesn't need to be lightweight--but it shouldn't be as heavy as it is in 
> CMF, either.

I'm not actually convinced of that;  having downstream consumers modify
the software can be an anti-goal for *lots* of situations, so making it
harder can be a win.  If you *do* make it easier to modify "closed"
software, then you *must* make resolving conflicting changes easier than
I foresee us having resources to tackle in the near term.

We could call such "closed-by-intent" distributeions "pandora boxes" :)

Tres.
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Tres Seaver                                tseaver@zope.com
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