Openmoko build infrastructure questions

[Michael 'Mickey' Lauer]

This discussion starts to go around in circles :/

On Wednesday 16 April 2008 21:15:00 Andy Green wrote:
> WHY is what we are doing so DIFFERENT from what normal desktop distros
> set out to provide that we need "a powerful build system

Try to run a stock distro on your Neo. Then come back and lets talk.

> Why do we need that handicap of
> a special "hard to learn" stumbling block for anyone that wants to
> contribute?  What is it doing for us that can't be done with a normal,
> existing, well maintained normal distro with a lot of users who know how
> to package and so on already?
>
> "Cross build" is the only answer I understood.

Then please reread the other mails or start to learn a bit more about OE.
Hints: Package granularity, embedded-specific patches, easy to build from 
source, automatic dependencies, source distribution, ...

> | Otherwise the real question is:
> |
> | * How can we make OE easier to use? *
> |
> | Most of the doubts and questions here will just go away once you
> | really understand it.  That's the hardest part, definitely much harder
> | then discussing on the mailing list.  I think that's the real problem.
>
> Yeah.  We have enough terrifying problems fighting against us already.
>
> Today there is a BIG barrier to entry to contribute.

Huh? Writing applications is pretty easy. Download the SDK and woot - there 
you go. Customizing a distribution is hard, yes, but that's not what your 
casual user is going to do.

> 4. We suddenly realize we're just making packages for a "PC", and we
> should use a normal distro with some solution for cross, and not learn
> and force everyone else to learn a big bunch of special case stuff.

You can repeat this as much as you want, but it won't become the truth.
A phone is NOT a PC. Yes it has similar power nowadays, but that's about it.

If there's something we learned from Om 2007.1 and 2007.2, then that a phone 
is not a PC hence needs to have special things all over the place.

If you want Openmoko to build MIDs, well, that could be a different story.

:M: