A growl about Growl (and NSAlert?)

[Arno Hautala]

I just wanted to note that while the Growl software is now sold on the
AppStore, the source is still available.

http://growl.info/documentation/developer/growl-source-install.php

http://code.google.com/p/growl

On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 2:27 AM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
>
> On Feb 7, 2013, at 23:26, Ian Wadham wrote:
>
>> I have been trying to get Pallet (MacPorts GUI) working in my environment:
>> OS X 10.7.5 (Lion) and Xcode 4.6, but it is badly broken.  One large problem
>> is that there is no feedback re whether a request has succeeded or failed or
>> what went wrong if it failed.
>>
>> I think this is because Growl @1.1.6 is not installed (although it is not listed
>> as a dependency of Pallet).  The Pallet code is certainly referencing its Growl
>> interface and providing text strings, whenever a MacPorts action finishes.
>> But nothing happens.
>>
>> I tried to install Growl @1.1.6, but the installation failed.  See attached log.
>>
>> Browsing around the Growl website, it appears Growl has moved on quite
>> a lot since v1.1.6 and is now v2.0.1, for Lion and Mountain Lion, for $4.99
>> in the App Store.  It has been chargeable since Growl 1.3.  See:
>>
>>    http://growl.info/downloads --- and the apalogia on:
>>    http://growl.posterous.com/growl-13-a-summary-of-the-major-changes
>>
>> It is claimed to be Open Source, but it is not free (as in beer).
>>
>> I tried to find out if any other MacPorts ports use Growl, but could not.
>> The "port dependents" command only applies only to installed ports.
>>
>> The question is whether I should persist with Growl?  Maybe whether MacPorts
>> should persist with Growl or just discontinue its very old version?
>>
>> Should I switch to Cocoa's NSAlert, which apparently is OS X's version
>> of a popup message box?  Growl has some additional nice features, like
>> being able to look back over history.  NSAlert seems rather basic, but I
>> can certainly use it to continue testing and finding out how much Pallet
>> actually does for the end-user.
>
> Users should not be required to use Growl; Growl should be optional. Users who want Growl features can install Growl; those who don't won't be bothered.
>
> I have Growl 1.2.2 installed on Mountain Lion (manually, outside of MacPorts); works great for me (for purposes unrelated to Pallet). I like it when software supports Growl.
>
> Note that Pallet includes its own copy of the Growl framework. We have a ticket about that being a bad idea, and wanting it to use a central copy of the Growl framework: https://trac.macports.org/ticket/27180#comment:13
>
> Growl having switched from free open source to paid has put a kink in MacPorts' plans. Not sure how we should handle the Growl port going forward. We would at least like to update it to the latest free version: https://trac.macports.org/ticket/22684
>
> The error you showed in your log building growl 1.1.6 is well-known; see https://trac.macports.org/ticket/32911
>
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-- 
arno  s  hautala    /-|   arno at alum.wpi.edu

pgp b2c9d448