[Info-vax] packaging and installers and sandboxes, oh my (was: Re: VAXStation 3100)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-01-20 23:16:40 +0000, Arne Vajhj said:

> On 1/20/2019 4:00 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>  ...but browsing for packages when you are looking for something to 
>> solve a specific problem is a _lot_ more viable when you have an 
>> organised list of packages you can browse through organised by groups, 
>> especially when you are not a highly technical computer expert.
> 
> The GUI make its easier to use for most users.
> 
> But my point was not about how to use it but about what it does.
> 
> I don't like to see application stuff splattered out over a half dozen 
> directories mixed with with other applications.
> 
> I want a single directory tree per application.
> 
> And I don't see the GUI help with that.

This is a mix of discovery—finding packages, and package directories 
and a GUI can most definitely be helpful there—and of either detecting 
and offering updates or automatically updating packages—those updates 
announced via RSS feeds or otherwise—and of managing dependencies, the 
installation and isolation of packages—sandboxes, ties into app 
startup, app signing, app revocations, and related—as well as what 
macOS refers to as app bundles.  Pragmatically, this is what exists 
behind the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store.

This chain of pieces and parts is missing from OpenVMS.

SYSMAN, VMSINSTAL and PCSI did try to provide a few pieces of this 
around automatic startups, but that work never got past sequencing the 
dependencies.  And those startups were often (usually?) system-wide; 
not isolated.

OpenVMS hasn't particularly documented suggested designs and 
conventions around implementing Rdb multi-version installations nor 
worked to make that isolation easier, and that omission has 
occasionally even caused problems for OpenVMS itself.  And this and the 
ACLs and the rest are very far from app sandboxing and containers and 
related capabilities.

OpenVMS hasn't seen appreciable work in this area since the advent of 
PCSI some 24 years ago.  And it shows.


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