Idea #11111: Program packages for all CPU Architectures by Ubuntu compiler on repo server

-9

Written by Tree MendUs the 14 Jul 08 at 05:55. Category: Marketing.
Related to: launchpad.net. Status: New

Description

Some programs in the Ubuntu Repositories are only available for some processor architectures (i386, x86, x64, AMD64).

It looks like the launchpad PPA service, can compile ubuntu packages for various architectures, when the program code is uploaded to it.

See "Launchpad 'Personal Package Archive' Service For Developers" at
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/launchpad-ppa

Ideas ;

1) If this is not currently done at the PPA service, then it would certainly be a helpful facility.

2) Active promotion
The developers of projects could be "actively" invited to submit their code to the PPA web site for compilation especially for ubuntu.

This might be done by extracting a database of package names, contact details, and whether they have been contacted, and joined or not, and who managed the contact.

The system can automatically contact those that details are known for, while people could volunteer to do the footwork, if research and human approaches need to be made.

Additional future possibilities;
1) Once this system is set up, then it will not only cater for many present architectures, but it could also very quickly be able to cater for any future architecture.
2) Ubuntu could provide a similar service to other linux distros, or supply them with the code to do it themselves.
3) If the system becomes able to compile packages for various linux OSes, then it might help having a more universal system for bringing projects to more platforms at once.
4) And maybe use the information to restructure systems to a uniform convention for more compatibility between systems (if ever that becomes desirable).

Tags: Archive Package Personal

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Duplicates

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Comments

droetker wrote on the 14 Jul 08 at 06:49

Thsis has been discussed many times - the advantage for 99,9% of the programs is minimal, but would bring much more problems with it, so it's not worth for the masses.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-i686
btw, this is a dupe of http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1573/

Tree MendUs wrote on the 14 Jul 08 at 09:25

@droetker

This is Not a Dup.

1) This is Not a dup of 1573.
1573 talks mostly about wanting i686 architecture programs compared to i386. No mention of x64 or AMD64 either.

You might notice that i686 doesn't even get a specific mention on this idea (though it is included within the x86 subset).

1573 says Absolutely Nothing about having the compiler facility at Ubuntu, to alleviate the developer from having to compile for architectures that they do not have.

2) https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-i686 talks about an i686 repo.
It does not talk about repos for the other architectures.
It does not talk about compiling many architectures on the ubuntu server - it only mentions a Build server" for i686 and somewhere else for the i686 repo.

combined;
None of these talk about a procedure for active marketing, to eventually get many/all architectures available for all programs.

There may be overlaps in the concepts in ideas, but this is not a dup of either of those. You could say that they are all related, but they have their differences.

droetker wrote on the 14 Jul 08 at 10:38

ok, agreed - but advantage of i68 is not that great.
Speed comes from prelinking, preloading etc, not from compiling for i686 or AMD K7.
I have use Gentoo for a time, and the difference in working speed is minimal IMO.

Just read the many discussions for making ubuntu i686.
Ubuntu is slower than other distros, but that has other reasons: boot time, many preloaded services and plugins etc.
But that's one of the reasons why it is that "usable" out-of-the-box.
I think It would be good to compile ubuntu for minimum i586 because almost nobody has a 386, and those who have can't run Ubuntu because of other issues (mem, speed etc).

SO: Yes, to compile it generally for i586 e.g of i686 - and
No - don't make extra repos for all archs - it multiplies the maintainance.
And community (ppa) repos? nobody prevents you from opening one.

But the main reason why -1:

1. don't reinvent the wheel another time: there will come UbuntuBuilder.
2. I don't even like that much because there is already the SUSE Build service which can produce other distros too.
Better help making that work perfectly.

I hate reinventing the wheel.

Tree MendUs wrote on the 16 Jul 08 at 13:11

The Suse Build Service compiles for several versions of Ubuntu.

The gist of my idea is to Promote Ubuntu Build server service (where ever it is - preferably at Ubuntu - where one would expect to find it).

Not what versions it should (not) handle.

The build server is almost totally automatic so doing compilation sets is not a big problem - it's just a matter of storage space and computing time.

==============================

Re;
I hate "reinventing the wheel"

That is the beauty of open source, can avoid re-inventing the wheel, by everybody sharing the code, that way, everybody is working on the same wheel.
Some are working on the spokes, some the rims, some the hub mounts, and maybe somebody comes up with steel radial tyres.
Even in the modern world, the wheel is constantly being re-designed.
100 years ago you had iron (not steel) on cart wheel rims,
and may be touch of rubber on your steam traction engine rims.

But then re-invention of the wheel is really only for those in the car industry.

Note;
Nobody ever uses a phrase like "there's no point inventing another type of engine".

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