Talk:AUR helpers

Is pacaur^AUR still active?

pacaur^AUR is now a forked version and the new forked version hasn't been updated for more than a year. The author is not responding to issues and pull requests any more. Shall we add a friendly notice about this? Simonmysun (talk) 02:39, 26 March 2021 (UTC)

There's a commit from 11 days ago. [1] -- Alad (talk) 09:13, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

It seems the project has indeed stalled. However, there were previous attempts to mark "old" helpers in the table. The response of helper authors was then to add trivial tags (like version bumps) to their project, simulating activity. As such, as long as the project is in AUR and still working, it seems best to leave this for users to decide. -- Alad (talk) 15:53, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Add table column for AUR helpers#Pacman wrappers

We have a note right above the table, would it not be better to create a new column for the information it contains? --Erus Iluvatar (talk) 08:26, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

The article went back and forth on this, the main issue being to define "batch operations" in the first place. This term was originally introduced by pacaur^AUR and comes down to 1. guessing which packages need to be replaced beforehand 2. using pacman --ask (undocumented feature) to invert pacman --noconfirm prompts from N to Y during the build process.

Making this a column with Yes/No implies this is a desirable feature. I argue that depending on undocumented features with a bug-prone implementation (what if the wrong package is replaced on the user's system?) can not be classified as such. Furthermore, it gives the impression this somehow leads to less interaction on the user's behalf, which is false (in fact, the vast majority of pacman wrappers play a game of whack-a-mole with y/N prompts). A Note is more neutral, and leaves out whether a feature is wanted or not in the middle.

In any case, the other columns, Shell completion excepted, are better suited as basic requirements for a reliable AUR helper. And as far as basic requirements go, they are relatively simple to implement for AUR helper authors looking at this article - unlike a "batch operation" mechanism. -- Alad (talk) 15:47, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Thank you ! I better understand now the reason why this is not already done. --Erus Iluvatar (talk) 16:26, 20 March 2022 (UTC)