Let's add variant descriptions

[markd at macports.org]

I agree that we need descriptions.  I'd vote for variant_description.  I'd
also say that out 'port info' and other commands that display this
information need formatting changes.  They don't put out information in a
way that the eye scans well.  It is output only a computer could love. 
For example, each item should have a title preceding it, and each item
that has multiple lines should indent the text that follows.  Or some such
scheme that the eye can scan easily.  Right now the display makes my
eyeballs work too hard and I sometimes just open it in an editor to see
that info.

Mark

Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> on Saturday, April 28, 2007 at
11:25 PM -0800 wrote:
>How hard would it be to let variants have descriptions? I think the  
>time has come for that feature to be implemented. Sometimes the  
>single word or abbreviation comprising the variant name just really  
>isn't enough information for the user to fully understand what the  
>variant does. I have been trying to add descriptions to my ports'  
>variants, in the comments in the portfile, but I would like to be  
>able to display these to the user.
>
>I see two necessary steps:
>
>
>1) Allow some (optional!) syntax within the variant to specify a  
>description, like
>
>variant macplus {
>	description Emulate a Macintosh Plus with 4 MB RAM and 6 drives
>	...
>}
>
>or
>
>variant macplus {
>	variant_description Emulate a Macintosh Plus with 4 MB RAM and 6 drives
>	...
>}
>
>
>2) Modify the display of "port info" to show the variant description,  
>like
>
>
>$ port info minivmac
>minivmac 2.8.2, Revision 1, emulators/minivmac
>http://minivmac.sourceforge.net/
>
>Mini vMac is a Macintosh emulator. It emulates the earliest Macs,  
>from the original Mac 128K (built 1984-85) to the Mac SE (1987-1990).  
>The default is to emulate a Mac Plus (1986-1990); this is also the  
>best-tested and therefore recommended emulation. To use Mini vMac,  
>you need a ROM file from the type of machine you're emulating. Mac  
>ROMs are copyrighted by Apple, so you must extract the ROM from a  
>real physical Mac that you own. Use the CopyROM program for this,  
>which you can download from the Mini vMac web site (More > Extras).
>
>Variants:
>	universal: Build a universal binary
>	mac128k: Emulate a Macintosh with 128K RAM and 2 drives
>	mac512k: Emulate a Macintosh 512K with 512K RAM and 2 drives
>	mac512ke: Emulate a Macintosh 512Ke with 512K RAM and 6 drives
>	macplus: Emulate a Macintosh Plus with 4 MB RAM and 6 drives
>	macse: Emulate a Macintosh SE with 4 MB RAM and 6 drives
>
>Maintainers: ryandesign at macports.org
>
>
>Variants that have no description (i.e. all variants currently) would  
>show up just like that, but with just the variant name and no colon  
>afterward:
>
>
>Variants:
>	universal
>	mac128k
>	etc.
>
>
>Note that I think the automatic platform variants like macosx and  
>darwin_8 should not appear at all in port info.
>
>
>Comments?