Hi Jason W
I'm, probably just stating the obvious but, as I understand it, the point of SCMs was the ability to easily mount and
unmount extensions at will and eliminate extension breakage due to dependency updates. The price for this being
larger packages, longer downloads, and greater disk and RAM requirements by the user. The other price that comes
to mind is if one of the built in dependencies needs an update, say for a security fix, then all the SCMs using that
built in dependency may need to be rebuilt. For all practical purposes, a tcz is just the opposite.
While I understand your desire to create an SCM architecture that is the best it can be, this hybrid approach sounds
like you are fighting two conflicting goals in an attempt to get the best of both worlds. That only works if the package
styles share a common attribute you can leverage, which doesn't sound like the case.
Kind of reminds me of a car commercial I once saw that claimed "exhilarating acceleration" and "phenomenal gas
mileage". The two don't co-exist in reality.
In any case, just some thoughts on my part and thanks for all of your contributions.