Star MacPorts 1.5 Released
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 17th Jul 2007 13:53 UTC, submitted by Ronaldo Ferreira
Mac OS X "The MacPorts team is pleased to announce the release of MacPorts v1.5. A major achievement in this release is the completion of code and documentation changes to reflect the transition in project name from DarwinPorts to MacPorts. This results in a slightly modified installation layout. In addition to that, there are a sizable number of bug fixes and feature enhancements. Please see the release notes for more details. Mac OS X v10.3 and 10.4 downloads are available."
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What does it do?
by C_Forq on Tue 17th Jul 2007 15:08 UTC
C_Forq
Member since:
2007-06-15

There is nothing in the summary or the linked web-page that says what the MacPorts software is for. They really need a "About this program" section on their web-page.

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From Wikipedia....
by ThawkTH on Tue 17th Jul 2007 15:37 UTC
ThawkTH
Member since:
2005-07-06

"MacPorts, formerly called DarwinPorts,[1] is a free/open source software project to simplify installation of other free/open source software on the Mac OS X and Darwin operating systems. Similar to Fink and the BSDs' ports collections, DarwinPorts was started in 2002 as part of the OpenDarwin project, with the involvement of a number of Apple Computer employees including Landon Fuller, Kevin Van Vechten, and Jordan Hubbard.

It allows the installation of a number of packages by simply entering the command port install packagename in the Terminal, which will then download, compile and install the requested software, while also installing any required dependencies automatically."

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPorts

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Re: What does it do?
by pacmania1982 on Tue 17th Jul 2007 17:04 UTC
pacmania1982
Member since:
2006-12-30

C_Forq: I'm glad I'm not the only one that was confused ;0)

pac

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Why should I compile?
by Wes Felter on Tue 17th Jul 2007 17:48 UTC
Wes Felter
Member since:
2005-11-15

The creator of the port file should have already built and tested a binary; why can't they just upload that? Why should a thousand people compile the same software?

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RE: Why should I compile?
by poundsmack on Tue 17th Jul 2007 18:19 UTC in reply to "Why should I compile?"
poundsmack Member since:
2005-07-13

users have become to spoiled. ;)

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RE[2]: Why should I compile?
by Spellcheck on Wed 18th Jul 2007 11:31 UTC in reply to "RE: Why should I compile?"
Spellcheck Member since:
2007-01-20

too

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RE: Why should I compile?
by BluenoseJake on Tue 17th Jul 2007 21:30 UTC in reply to "Why should I compile?"
BluenoseJake Member since:
2005-08-11

If MacPorts is similar to BSD ports, it's not one application, it's a huge amount of applications, provided in source form. It is one of the great things about the BSDs. it's really no different then installing binary files, just takes a little longer.

You just type cd into the ports directory and type:
make install

and then go get a coffee.

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RE: Why should I compile?
by s_groening on Tue 17th Jul 2007 22:38 UTC in reply to "Why should I compile?"
s_groening Member since:
2005-12-13

Simple enough: Ports are not packages ... They're compiled along with dependencies during installation, unlike packages which are what you ask for, binaries targeted at a certain platform.

The advantage of ports over packages are obvious in terms of possible use of compiler flags for optimizations that might be regarded non standard, or even the possibility of compiling the port other options than intended from the port maintainer - something that's not possible with packages.

Of course the wish for packages is legit - but out of scope for the ports people as such.

Edited 2007-07-17 22:40

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RE[2]: Why should I compile?
by Wes Felter on Wed 18th Jul 2007 02:28 UTC in reply to "RE: Why should I compile?"
Wes Felter Member since:
2005-11-15

The advantage of ports over packages are obvious in terms of possible use of compiler flags for optimizations that might be regarded non standard, or even the possibility of compiling the port other options than intended from the port maintainer - something that's not possible with packages.

If I wanted Gentoo, I'd use Gentoo.

Of course the wish for packages is legit - but out of scope for the ports people as such.

So I wonder why we have two ports projects (MacPorts and Fink) and no binary package projects (that I know of).

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www.finkproject.org
by s_groening on Wed 18th Jul 2007 10:21 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Why should I compile?"
s_groening Member since:
2005-12-13

(From the website)
'Fink uses Debian tools like dpkg and apt-get to provide powerful binary package management. You can choose whether you want to download precompiled binary packages or build everything from source.'

That ought to answer your prayers ;)

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Impressive!!
by BigJimSlade on Tue 17th Jul 2007 18:21 UTC
BigJimSlade
Member since:
2006-01-19

"A major achievement in this release is the completion of code and documentation changes to reflect the transition in project name from DarwinPorts to MacPorts."

The major achievement is a NAME CHANGE.

Underwhelming.

Reply Bookmark Score: 4

binaries
by IronWolve on Wed 18th Jul 2007 03:55 UTC
IronWolve
Member since:
2006-01-17

macports suppose to have binaries, but I have no idea how to get them to work.
Also, I like fink better, but the packages are older than macports.

So macports wins.

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RE: binaries
by evangs on Wed 18th Jul 2007 06:38 UTC in reply to "binaries"
evangs Member since:
2005-07-07

Fink can be so damn verbose by default and it also struggles to resolve dependencies at times.

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