Feedback Request for Prototype Package Tool

[William Tracy]

> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ThirdPartyApt

Wow. This last week I was just working on a prototype of a program
that does the same thing, that I was calling "Repository Wizard".

Besides the obvious differences in my project not being as far along
:-) my version of the .apt file format did NOT specify packages to
install.

The concept was for the wizard to add repositories to sources.list,
add GPG keys to the trusted sources as the user explicitly identified
them as trusted, run "apt-get update", and then provide the user with
a list of new packages introduced by the repository. That part of the
interface (not yet working) would be similar to the "Add new programs"
option lurking at the bottom of the programs menu.

To be specific, Repository Wizard would not ever automatically install
any packages. It would add a repository, and provide a quick
point-and-click interface to install packages from that repository.

I hope I'm not beating a horse that someone else already killed. :-)
However, my variation on the concept seems to solve *some* of the
security concerns that have already been voiced.

-- 
William Tracy
afishionado at gmail.com -- wtracy at calpoly.edu

I'm right now looking for a summer software engineering internship in
northern California! My resume is online here:
http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/People/WilliamTracy