[rkward-devel] How to deal with binary packages?

[Prasenjit Kapat]

Hi,

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 2:29 AM, I. Soumpasis <nono.231 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> 2009/5/6 Thomas Friedrichsmeier <thomas.friedrichsmeier at ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
>>
>> The launchpad for ubuntu idea suggested by Prasenjit sounds good to me. I
>> think it probably makes sense to use distribution-specific mechanisms like
>> this as well, as long as the Binaries and Build Scripts page has the
>> relevant
>> and up-to-date instructions to find there.
>>
>
> Hi
>
> I would like to drop to your attention the R repositories for some distros
> that can be found at http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/.
>
> I consider that they target a different group of users that want the latest
> of all. For example the latest ubuntu will not have R-2.9.0. However,
> although these repos may provide with the latestof R, there is always a
> (small) risk of breaking some things in the distro. The advantage of these
> repo is that provides with binaries (at least for ubuntu) for many version
> of the distribution and the latest R and the packages available. I can see
> that in some older versions they had rkward bur not anymore. Maybe a contact
> with the maintainers could help. Just an idea.

That is indeed true. Let me try to factor all the possible (under
Ubuntu) scenarios:

I'll use these short hands for brevity:
<R == generally behind latest R release,
<rkw == generally behind latest Rkward release,
+R == latest R
+rkw == latest Rkward on KDE4
+rkw3 == latest Rkward on KDE3
UR == Official Ubuntu R
Urkw == Official Ubuntu Rkward

1. UR (<R) & Urkw (<rkw OR <rkw3) -- nothing doing
2. UR (<R) & "+rkw OR +rkw3" -- _we_ have to provide either via
Meik's/Launchpad (M/L) repos.
3. cran (+R) & "+rkw OR +rkw3" -- cran repos OR M/L repos

Since we would already be doing 2., I suggest we can pool in 3 also.
Pushing this to cran packagers will again, bring in a _waiting
queue_... Me and Meik can split between 2 and 3. We can use the same
scripts just different virtual machines!

Now the different versions of Ubuntu:
1. draper : +rkw3  -- cran provides 0.4.9a + R 2.9
2. gutsy: +rkw3 & +rkw -- cran provides 0.5.0b-2
3. hardy: +rkw3 & +rkw -- cran provides 0.5.0b-2
4. intrepid: +rkw3 & +rkw -- cran NONE
5. jaunty: +rkw -- cran NONE
Which of these do we really want to provide? 4. and 5 - should.

Another issue: Will rkward compiled against KDE 4.2.x work on KDE
4.1.x? Probably not!

Thanks,
-- 
Prasenjit