Hey sergio - I missed the memo saying that's an outdated way of installing stuff. Must be because I keep coming across instructions that have me doing that. :)
Anyway, my point is that the very existence of a package manager is already misguided. Applications should be standalone (even the ones I install from source should just bring the libraries they depend on with them, instead of relying on a third-party program (the pkg manager) to make their application installable).
If programmers would package their applications like Ruby Enterprise Edition packaged itself, there would be no need for a package manager, and everything would install without fail every time.
REE's installer is interactive; if all installers were interactive (with a fallback flags system for non-interactive execution) then you would be able to customize them without needing a third-party program (homebrew).
Thew fewer third-party programs necessary to install an application, the easier it is to install and the less likely there will be errors. That is empirically true (based on my experience installing things on all 3 major OSs).
Anyway, my point is that the very existence of a package manager is already misguided. Applications should be standalone (even the ones I install from source should just bring the libraries they depend on with them, instead of relying on a third-party program (the pkg manager) to make their application installable).
If programmers would package their applications like Ruby Enterprise Edition packaged itself, there would be no need for a package manager, and everything would install without fail every time.