Re: [Chicken-users] Arch User Repository packages

[cowan]

> 1) Does chicken have a way to check if there are new versions of
> libraries? Most of these libraries don't actually have a website or
> up-to-date version information, and the only way I've seen so far to
> tell the latest version is to download it with chicken-install and check
> the version in the $name.setup file.

In the nature of things, with eggs kept in many different repositories,
that's all you can do.

> 2) Is there a way to track dependencies for chicken packages? So far,
> the only way I've noticed is to install the package and check for
> errors. This is problematic for packages because I might have a
> dependency on my computer that another use does not. Some libraries
> document dependencies on their wiki page, but some don't.

Egg dependencies can be found in the .meta file.  There's no way to
document non-egg dependencies (C libraries or what not).  A convention
could be created for adding them to the .meta file also, but then the
problem that arises is:  "If egg foo depends on C library libfoo,
how to determine whether libfoo is installed?"  There is no
platform-independent way of doing so.

IMO, system-specific package libraries should be used only for Chicken
itself, and eggs should be updated solely by chicken-install.