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

[Jim Fulton]

Tres Seaver wrote:
> 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" :)

Yup. Making "closed" software "open" should be like taking the back off
a TV. It nullifies any warrantees.

Mu intuition is that you can create a open thing froma closed thing, but this
has copy semantics. The new thing is a totally different thing.

Jim


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