Tiny Core Extensions > TCE Talk
Beyond core - resolving compatibility issues in modular architecture
tclfan:
As modular architecture of TCL is an unquestionable asset which sets TCL apart from other systems, one issue appears to be growing in my mind (and my poorly documented, for the lack of time testing...):
The core TCL (3.2) system appears to be solid as a rock, however when you add complexity (various extensions) compatibility between these extensions and/or between such combination and the core appears to arise and require solutions or chosing other combination.
Last night I was able to spend some time trying to test (again) various windows managers, such as openbox, hackedbox, jwm, icewm, LXDE, XFCE (after setting up Xorg), then configured Firefox, and then loaded ezmaster to try re-mastering...
With various combinations, even of such limited complexity I was facing various issues, some of which are well known, such as Hackedbox corrupting Wbar, etc... Often experienced symptoms were menues of WMs becoming unresponsive and the entire desktop freezing... I was never able to get ezmaster to start (which was loaded 'On-Demand) or XFCE to start successfully. However my testing was not methodically organized and exact steps were not documented to isolate issues, so I cannot tell what caused what...
I tend to believe this was my unlucky day to test, but for the end user compatibility issues might present quite an obstacle on the road to composing a dream system.
If compatibility issue is a legitimate, and not just my bad luck, would this not emphasize the importance of creating a 'showcase' flavor of ready-to-go TCL system, containing best of breed apps, in order to bring TCL closer to audience of users wider than tech savvy and developers?
Guy:
Tiny Core has come a long way in a short time.
Robert and the team have done an outstanding job.
The features that have been implemented, are a higher priority than the features that have not been implemented.
However, there are some applications which are incompatible with others, and cause malfunctions if both are run at the same time. (I don't know about any of those mentioned above.)
At some time in the future, as time permits, it would be a good idea to introduce a system which prevents applications which are incompatible with each other from being run at the same time - with some kind of message, so the user knows what is happening.
With Tiny Core the challenge is even greater than other operating systems, as there is the on demand feature. Technically, both could be installed and run at different times, but there should be some method of preventing them from both being run at the same time.
It is even more challenging, as extensions are made by many different people.
But the idea is to make the system fool proof. So users cannot crash the system.
tclfan:
Completely agree. For TCL this challenge is far greater than for other (pre-packaged) systems, where integration tests have been done and compatibility issues resolved before gold version is posted.
This necessitates a pre-packed ready-to-go, integration-tested flavor of TCL for wide audience of users, alongside with the current strategy of sticking to start-from-base modular architecture for techs and developers.
Otherwise a typical user will sooner or later face a frustrating task of resolving these compatibility issues himself. This could be an obstacle to wide popularity and recognition TCL deserves.
Jason W:
Aside from alsa and OSS, and the various Mplayers, I don't think there are many truly conflicting extensions whether due to file conflict or runtime issue.
And any incompatibilities that do exist would have to get solved at the extension level whether those extensions are in the repo or part of a prepackaged set. The same with bugs within an extension.
If there are conflicting extensions besides those mentioned above I would like to hear of them so they can be resolved or simply marked as conflicting with another package. As the goal of the repo is not for extensions to conflict with each other, I don't think that we have enough true conflicts among extensions to warrant an automated approach to prevent installing conflicting packages.
Guy:
Fairly obvious
Some of the internet browsers are incompatible with each other. Particularly those which are variations of the same thing.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version