On Nov 7, 2007, at 11:23 AM, Randall Wood wrote:
On Tuesday, November 06, 2007, at 01:36PM, "Juan Manuel Palacios" <jmpp@macports.org> wrote:
Hello Ryan!
I'm not aware that Ryan has done any work on Pallet either. That said, if he wants to, he's welcome to.
I'm so sorry *Randall*! I'd just finished sending a message to Ryan at that time and when I started writing yours his name slipped out my fingers... only a few characters difference ;-) ---snip---
I'm tying into the MacPorts API, although if I can get significant performance improvements by not using the API, I might rewrite in Cocoa. (For example, until I began using MPPort objects that each made a call against the MacPorts API when initialized, a pure Cocoa method to read the PortIndex was noticeably faster than using the MacPorts API--however it turns out that I lost all those advantages when I wrote the MPPort objects. I'm thinking of rewriting them to make any and all calls against the API lazily (i.e.: only when absolutely required), but I am also aware that the MPIndex needs to figure out the URI to the portfile for an MPPort and pass that in.
Rewriting MacPorts in any language up to any extent is a major, long term endeavor that would naturally spark off a lot of brainstorming around it: -) first and foremost, what language?? (/me phears the holly wars!) -) once that's settled, do we start from scratch with a new design or, on the other hand, try to re-implement the existing one in the new language? -) barring that, how would our new APIs look like? -) and last in this very short list (which could easily be expanded), but certainly by no means least, what do we do to *NOT* loose all the work already invested in our Portfiles? Now, I'm not trying to discourage you in any way.... in fact, I'm more than sure many here would put together a party if we embark on a rewriting endeavor (probably even including me ;-) -- and, in fact, when Landon once considered it, Cocoa was a very strong option -- I am instead asking you to please be most open about it if you are indeed considering a full rewrite of base, as otherwise a solitary effort may result in massive waste of time and resources. ---snip---
I am very close (planning on starting this weekend) on rewriting the MacPorts Notifier (its distributed via MacPorts) to use the Framework for syncing and then for upgrading ports and once I am satisfied that the Framework is usable in a real-world scenario, in getting it officially into the project and versioning and bundling it for distribution.
If your framework does stand up to the test of a real world application we could of course brainstorm over distributing it as a Cocoa glue for Mac OS X native GUIs for MacPorts. I believe that would be a very interesting project to explore! Can you please let us know of your progress when you reach any milestones?
Maybe I should just document all this on Trac...
That would be sweet!
-- Randall Wood rhwood@mac.com
Kudos for the hard work and energy devoted to the project! Regards,... -jmpp PS: And sorry again for the Randall/Ryan confusion ;-)