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#1 2004-05-08 21:22:24

p0indext0r
Member
From: Toronto / Canada
Registered: 2004-02-21
Posts: 30

Arch Idea's, perhaps...

Hi, I've been sitting around today and doing a little bit of day dreaming about some idea's that I think would be helpful to this community and to ArchLinuc as well.

One question first... a little off topic but here goes anyway: What language is pacman coded with, bash? I didn't bother to look myself....yet. Thought I'd ask while I was here.

And now back to the show. smile

I've been on and off of arch for sometime now and have realized something. It has this strange affect on me... much like that slackware affect you get where you just love the distro but you don't really know why exactly. It's that feeling you just can't put your finger on and it feel's all warm and toasty inside. wink But most important and noticeable of all, whenever you try out another distro you find yourself always coming back to your one true love.

So by now I've scared everyone off with my useless rantings, but wait a second here...       is that what i think it is?....     Oh! People are still reading smile!

As I was saying, and before I get WAY too off topic I have this urge to develope some useful tools for ArchLinux to sort of make everyday things easier. But what I'm really curious about is wheither or not anyone has any suggestions or ideas they would like to share.

Basically just give me some ideas off the top of your head that you would see or like to see made possible, wheither it be tools, programs, and even eye candy (arch specific of course wink).

Anyway, sorry for the obvious derailed train wreck of a question here, I'm just all over the place today.


If a turtle loses its shell, is it naked or homeless? -- p0indext0r

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#2 2004-05-08 22:17:55

Egil.B
Member
From: Universitas Osloensis
Registered: 2004-02-14
Posts: 116

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

A curses-frontend to pacman with easier searching than pacman -S whatever | less.
Arch lilo-theme.
gtk2-fork of amsn  :?

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#3 2004-05-08 22:32:54

kakabaratruskia
Member
From: Santiago, Chile
Registered: 2003-08-24
Posts: 596

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

Pacman is writen in C.


And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you though?
They're all resting down in Cornwall
writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition
of the Boy Scout Manual.

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#4 2004-05-08 22:37:46

p0indext0r
Member
From: Toronto / Canada
Registered: 2004-02-21
Posts: 30

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

oh, cool. K thanks.


If a turtle loses its shell, is it naked or homeless? -- p0indext0r

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#5 2004-05-08 22:47:41

mcubednyc
Member
From: New York, NY USA
Registered: 2004-03-17
Posts: 120

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

p0indext0r wrote:

Basically just give me some ideas off the top of your head that you would see or like to see made possible, wheither it be tools, programs, and even eye candy (arch specific of course wink).

Well, this probably is not what you want to hear, but I only have one aching (arching?  big_smile ) need for Arch:  documentation.  More documentation.  Better documentation.  Mo' betta docs.

I'm still practicing using the Arch-specific tools that already exist, never mind figuring out how to use various Linux apps on my Arch Linux installation.  ATM, I don't need new ones.  What would be most helpful is more discursive docs, examples, even exercises.  Like most man pages, man pacman and man makepkg are informative, but they aren't particularly instructive.

This is a nice example of "instructive":
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alsa%20setup

That's what I think Arch needs more of, especially with regard to the kinds of issues and tasks associated with pacman/makepkg, and even makeworld (which is way beyond my comprehension ATM).  For example, from man makepkg:

Notice that the "/usr" portion should be present with "prefix", but not "DESTDIR". "DESTDIR" is the favorable option to use, but not all Makefiles support it. Use "prefix" only when "DESTDIR" is unavailable.

Ok.  How do I know when "DESTDIR" is unavailable?  I made a PKGBUILD for WMxmms.  It works, not quite like I expected but it functions.  I tried to follow various PKGBUILDs for other WM dock apps as a guide, but even these are all over the map.  Some use "DESTDIR," some use "prefix."  Some that use "DESTDIR" still have "/usr" present.  I don't get that.

Here is another example, from Crux, of what I think Arch needs more of:

http://crux.fh-regensburg.de/cgi-bin/cv … GnomePorts

The nice thing here is that it is distro-specific -- i.e., it tells you a Crux way of installing Gnome -- and goal-oriented, as well as instructive.  It's set-up in an "if you want/use ..., then you need ..." format.  It preserves the freedom of choice that Crux (and Arch) users value.  You can adapt it to your needs, rather than just installing something pre-configured, and most importantly, you can learn from it.

For me, these are the kinds of things that would make everyday things easier.


"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." - S. Jackson

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#6 2004-05-09 00:33:11

p0indext0r
Member
From: Toronto / Canada
Registered: 2004-02-21
Posts: 30

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

Well, I completely agree with you on the documentation issue, which btw isn't so bad anymore since the wiki and other implementations put in place for the community to build up thier own hand book.

I will eventually do my part or at least have some input whenever I can contribute. As for now I'm playing around with a front-end/script that makes putting together / writting a PKGBUILD from scratch a little easier for the new comer. Basically it will look like a registration forum that you just input all the information in and when you click "make" or whatever I put at the bottom it will output the PKGBUILD. I don't have any screens yet, because I'm still playing around with the script.

EDIT: To better explain I basically want to make a PKGBUILD wizard. Just an idea, might not even be useful.


If a turtle loses its shell, is it naked or homeless? -- p0indext0r

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#7 2004-05-09 01:53:08

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

Dennis and I are collaborating on some documentation standards. hopefully you'll see us get some decent official documentation out over the next few months.  Suggestions wouldn't hurt either. wink

In the meantime, keep the wiki up to date! smile

Dusty

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#8 2004-05-09 02:48:19

p0indext0r
Member
From: Toronto / Canada
Registered: 2004-02-21
Posts: 30

Re: Arch Idea's, perhaps...

Sounds good, keep up the good work. As I said I will try and help out whenever I can.  8)


If a turtle loses its shell, is it naked or homeless? -- p0indext0r

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