[petsc-dev] I hate nagupgrade

[Matthew Knepley]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Karl Rupp <rupp at iue.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>          There is a difference between a library and an end-user
>> application.
>>         Having "updaters" for end-user applications seems to be the
>>         status quo
>>         on Windows and to a lesser extent on Macs, but is resented on
>> Linux.
>>         Having a library do these checks is not okay anywhere.
>>
>>
>>     I remember a session at the Google Summer of Code where some guy
>>     from one of the open source wikis shared his experiences with having
>>     embedded a 'counter pixel' in a release. In short, his lesson
>>     learned was that any kind of "phoning home" is an absolute no-go
>>     unless made *very* clear to the users (plus opt-out). This was
>>     pre-Snowden, so many people are now much more sensible with respect
>>     to these matters...
>>
>>
>> I am all for a configure opt-out, and noting it in every piece of
>> documentation. My impression of the level
>> of sophistication of most users is that we will see few opt-outs.
>>
>
> I bet that some Germans would still be very upset about an opt-out rather
> than an opt-in (yes, this is a cultural issue...).
>
> Is there much value from a nagupgrade check at configure-time? Those who
> download a fresh copy of PETSc don't have any benefit from the check. After
> the installation, the check has no effect (Matt, I remember your fieldsplit
> slides where you say that students only install at the beginning of your
> PhD, then work entirely with options). For


Hmm, I wanted to say compile once :)


> those who configure frequently, a regular update is part of the work flow
> anyway. So, who really benefits from nagupgrade?
>

I think the intent is to catch people who use regular releases, but to try
and persuade them to upgrade when a new release
comes out. I have no data for this, but my impression is that most users
work this way.

   Matt


> Best regards,
> Karli
>
>


-- 
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
experiments lead.
-- Norbert Wiener
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