Re: [PATCH] Add transforms feature

On Fri, 2013-07-05 at 12:04 -0700, Josh Berkus wrote:
> (a) transforms aren't like other contribs, in that they are dependant on
> other contribs before you install them.

That doesn't appear to be a reason for creating subdirectories.

> (b) we can expect maybe a dozen to 18 of them in core based on the data
> types there, and I hate to clutter up /contrib, and

Well, that's a matter of opinion. I'd be more happy with 250 contribs
all on the same level versus a bunch of subdirectories structured based
on personal preferences.

But hey, we disagreed on config.sgml for similar reasons, IIRC. ;-)

> (c) I'd like to do a future feature which supports "install all
> transforms" functionality, which would be helped by having them in their
> own directory.

Installing all transforms by itself is not a sensible operation, because
you only want the transforms for the types and languages that you
actually use or have previously selected for installation.

I understand that this situation is unsatisfactory. But I don't think
any dependency or package management system has solved it. For example,
can any package management system make the following decision: user
install PHP, user installs PostgreSQL client => install php-pgsql
automatically. I don't think so. The only solutions are making PHP
dependent on PostgreSQL (or vice versa), or having the user install
php-pgsql explicitly.