applications_dir under prefix (was: Re: Framework install location)

[Randall Wood]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 6:29 PM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> On Oct 12, 2008, at 04:02, Anders F Björklund wrote:
>
>> The configure scripts used the /Applications and /Library locations
>> (or ~/Applications and ~/Library) because that was the rule at the
>> time,
>> made it easier to integrate with things outside of MacPorts itself
>> such
>> as Xcode or Services. That applied to applications/frameworks/
>> tclpackage.
>>
>> I would prefer prefix, myself...
>
> I don't know the implications of having the frameworks outside of /
> Library/Frameworks (e.g. in ${prefix}/Library/Frameworks) but for
> applications I thought the point was that the OS wouldn't know about
> them (e.g. things like "open -a foo" wouldn't work unless foo.app was
> somewhere under /Applications). Though testing this right now, I
> can't reproduce that.
>
> If that is a problem, we could have MacPorts create a symlink at /
> Applications/MacPorts pointing to ${prefix}/Applications/MacPorts if
> one does not already exist (if installing as root). This would
> satisfy the majority of users who have just a single installation,
> but still work fine for those with multiple installations. Finally
> there could be a configure switch to not make that symlink.

Symlinks break in the 'list view' for the Applications folder in the
Dock. If you drag your applications folder to the dock, and place it
in list view, you get a "menu" of applications. Subfolders can be
navigated through like submenus, but symlinks are not followed. I'd
keep applications in /Applications/MacPorts

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-- 
Randall Wood
randall.h.wood at alexandriasoftware.com

"The rules are simple: The ball is round. The game lasts 90 minutes.
All the rest is just philosophy."