[Catalog-sig] UI for managing catalog

[Moshe Zadka]

[Andrew]
>Of course. By CGI, you probably mean "server side code" rather then
>really CGI. CGI is an evil protocol, and will die soon anyway. Why
>not use a real tool, like Zope?

[Moshe]
> We do not want to require people to install the massive bulk of Zope.
> Ideally I'd like running a package-only mirror to simply require
> running wget or some similar tool; a searchable mirror should simply
> require the additional step of setting up a CGI script and mirroring
> the additional index file(s).

Let me just note, that AFAIK, CPAN requires mod_perl.
But in any case, that is a mute issue, for the time being.

Could you start a list of open questions that we need to answer before
starting to implement something?
Here are some points to think about:

* Registration/package uploading interface
* Mirroring interface
* How to seperate the meta-data from the content -- in the Debian system,
  e.g., each node has a complete copy of all meta-data locally. An "update"
  operation updates it. Quite likely, the meta-data file will change a lot,
  but requiring mirrors to generate it themselves is unrealistic.
* Completing meta-data: among other things, how to specify dependancies
  on non-Python packages? (e.g., zlib)
* What format will the packages be in? I recommend specifying *one* *standard*
  *format*, and if at all possible, make sure Python 2.1 supports it natively.
* How do we handle collisions between package names/module names? Unlike Perl,
  Python has the problem that if there is a module "foo" there cannot be a 
  module "foo.bar" too.
* Who do we think will host the master archive? (Alternatives: SF, DC...) 

-- 
Moshe Zadka <sig@zadka.site.co.il>
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