A Plea to Reduce Dependences (e.g., for swig)

[Anders F Björklund]

M.E. O'Neill wrote:

>>> The previous +system_x11 variant did this, it would use $x11prefix (/usr/X11R6 or /usr/X11 depending on your system version) rather than install new ports in $prefix (for xorg).
> 
> and Ryan Schmidt replied:
>> Right. And so many issues occurred as a result that it is a perfect case study of why we should not do such things in the future.
> 
> It's possible that the fundamental idea is reasonable, but it is merely the particular execution of the idea that was flawed in this case.
> 
> Maybe you could provide more detail (or pointers) about the problems that occurred?  In my experience, there are quite a number of things that can go wrong in the MacPorts model of variants/installed/activated, but as I understand it, those fundamentals have stayed the same for a long time despite their potential for problems.

If I recall correctly, most of the actual problems was with new software
trying to use the old /usr/X11R6 on Tiger rather than /usr/X11 Leopard+ ?

Old software on old X11 (XFree86) and new software on new X11 (Xquartz)
has mostly worked out of the box for me - but there's always some bugs...

--anders