Pallet...?

[Juan Manuel Palacios]

On Nov 7, 2007, at 11:23 AM, Randall Wood wrote:

> On Tuesday, November 06, 2007, at 01:36PM, "Juan Manuel Palacios"  
> <jmpp at 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 at mac.com


	Kudos for the hard work and energy devoted to the project! Regards,...


-jmpp

PS: And sorry again for the Randall/Ryan confusion ;-)