Ports Future [was Re: Panther tickets]

[Anders F Björklund]

Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:

> If it were me calling the shots, and it's not, what I'd probably do  
> is fork the entire macports tree with a -legacy branch, the purpose  
> for which is defined as "everything from Panther back to Cheetah,  
> if people really want", and leave -trunk advancing along with a  
> "whatever the last n releases are" support policy, older releases  
> dropping off into the -legacy branch to die a slower, semi- 
> supported death.  Then, at least, those poor unfortunates who are  
> constrained to ${someOldRelease} of MacOSX have the option of self- 
> support by being given a place to work.

Gathered some statistical legacy data:

MacPorts Mac OS X Releases Build Date
-------- ----------------- ----------
1.0      10.2, 10.3, 10.4  2005-04-28
1.1      10.2, 10.3, 10.4  2005-10-10
1.2            10.3, 10.4  2005-12-14
1.3                  10.4  2006-07-27
dp2mp
1.4.0    10.3, 10.4        2007-03-27
1.5.0    10.3, 10.4, 10.5  2007-07-09
1.6.0    10.3, 10.4, 10.5  2007-12-16
1.7.0    10.3, 10.4, 10.5  2008-12-14

It seems the value of n is around 3...

So the "logical" follow up would be:

1.8.0    10.4, 10.5, 10.6  2009 or so
1.9.0    10.4, 10.5, 10.6  2010 or so

And hopefully - by then the "Ports 2.0"
would provide something better instead :-)

Like an integrated package manager say,
and a better (graphic?) user experience...

--anders