**Goals**

To be the best package management system ever.  To change the nature of package creation/distribution.  To simplify all aspects of the process of writing and disseminating a library.  To speed up parts of the system that are slow.


***Subgoals for package writers***

It should be easy to submit a package to the repository.

***Subgoals for application writers***

It should be easy to access a package listed in the repository.  The repository should handle dependencies automatically.

***Subgoals for end-users***

It should be faster than the current tcl library load times.  Root access shouldn't be necessary to add packages to one's local set of packages.

*** Inspiration ***
http://math.nist.gov/~DPorter/tcltk/oscon/

**First cut at code**
[[package require Package]]

The code is here: http://code.google.com/p/wub/source/browse/trunk/Utilities/Package.tcl

It completely replaces [package] with a version which tracks additions to (note: not subtractions from) ::auto_path.  First time it ever runs it creates a database under ~/.tclpkg into which it stores all the packages it finds.  Thereafter, it satisfies all [[package require]] calls from that database, never traversing the filesystem again, unless and until ::auto_path changes to include a new, as yet unseen, directory.

This is faster than filesystem traversal, and provides a centralised database of all known/seen packages.  This speed comes at a cost, of course:  changes to the underlying file system will *not* be noticed by or reflected in Package.  As things stand, the database would have to be removed to reflect these changes when it is automatically rebuilt.

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