*-devel ports

[Emmanuel Hainry]

Citando js :
> On Feb 7, 2008 1:58 PM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> > >> I think -devel is better.
> > >> For one thing, it's more intuitive.
> >
> > It was proposed that -devel ports should be updated to the latest
> > stable version, if the latest stable version is newer than the latest
> > development version. If we act on this proposal, then "-latest" is
> > more intuitive than "-devel".
> 
> I agree with you,
> but I think that the situation that devel-ver < stable-ver is very rare.
> I've never seen it. (By newer, you means the version number is greater, right?)
> So I don't agree with that proposal.
> -devel = development is more frequently used
> so, at least for me, -devel is more natural and intuitive.
> 
> Actually, I prefer simple name like
> mysql51 or python30 instead of mysql5-devel or python30-devel, but I
> found this naming convension is not popular ;)

The problem with such names is that to decide which port to install you
have to search the project website to know which version is the most
suitable for you. Seeing that there are 5 different postgresql port (7,
80, 81, 82, 83) makes me quite puzzled, which one is considered stable?
Is the oldest deprecated and only there for backwards compatibility or
is it the stable version and all 8x are more or less cutting edge and
presumably broken. Is there an even is unstable, odd is stable
convention?

The irssi, irssi-devel case on the other hand is quite clear, if you
want stable, go for irssi, if you need latest features, go for -devel.

zsh and mutt are however bad examples as the considered stable version
is too old lacks many features (and probably security).

I therefore prefer the -devel naming, but would like to have some not
tagged stable but proved enough ports to become the stable version (it
is up to the maintainer to decide if it should be upgraded or not in the
end). 

Emmanuel