Re: [gentoo-dev] RFD: EAPI specification in ebuilds

[Ciaran McCreesh <ciaran.mccreesh@googlemail.com>]

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On Thu, 08 Mar 2012 09:07:18 -0800
Zac Medico <zmedico@gentoo.org> wrote:
> It's a very special metadata variable. Of course, it could also be 
> implemented in many different ways that do not involve bash variable 
> assingments. Maybe the differences between the various possible ways 
> truly make a difference to some people, but to me it's just 
> hair-splitting [1].
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivial_objections

Having a different, special rule for something that looks exactly like
lots of other things that do not have that different, special rule is
hardly hair splitting. This rule would have to be documented and have
special code to carefully enforce it. That's a big deal.

Having something break because you add an unrelated comment to the top
of a file is weird.

Having something break because you indent it, where nothing else breaks
if you do the same thing, is weird.

Having something break because you make full use of bash syntax, where
nothing else breaks if you do the same thing, is weird.

There are already a whole pile of subtle traps for ebuild writers and
complications for people learning the system. We should be aiming to
reduce these, not add to them.

-- 
Ciaran McCreesh

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