Archives and Packages (was Re: Universal and binary builds)

[Jeff Johnson]

On Mar 28, 2009, at 2:59 PM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
>>
>
> I don't know if "popular" would be the word I would use.  Neither  
> solution has ever actually been *completed* would be a more accurate  
> statement, so the resulting popularity of said solution is  
> impossible to gauge.  The MacPorts project has always had a rather  
> lackluster attitude when it comes to the challenge of packaging up  
> and delivering software to end-users, but the fact remains that most  
> end-users just want to say "I want this, that and that other thing  
> over there - make it happen please!" with the minimum amount of  
> downloading/build time.   If you look at FreeBSD ports, for example,  
> where it could easily be said that a "sophisticated audience" is the  
> target (FreeBSD's historical attempt to grab Linux mind/marketshare  
> notwithstanding), most users actually install software by typing  
> "pkg_add -r gimp" and letting the package management system do the  
> rest, they don't think of "cd /usr/ports/graphics/gimp; make all;  
> make install" as the most convenient/desirable way of doing it, and  
> why should they - the latter approach takes at least 10X the time to  
> complete.
>

Um, what is your definition of "completed"?

I have several e-mails from a certain Apple VP when I enquired "Is  
there more that is needed with RPM?" ...

73 de Jeff