*-devel ports

[js]

Naming convention in Debian/GNU Linux solves your problem.
Take python for example.
They provides a meta package named "python", which requires
the stable python (2.4 or 2.5?). That's nice.
However, I think achieving it in MacPorts would be quite  difficult...

On Feb 7, 2008 11:03 PM, Emmanuel Hainry <milosh at macports.org> wrote:
> 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
>
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