Breaking long dependency chains

[Freek Dijkstra]

Hi Ryan and Lawrence,

Thanks for your detailed answers.

It is now clear to me that the answer you are proposing to solve this is to:
* use subports
* use file-based rather than package-based dependencies where possible

while solutions based on variants are considered bad, for the simple
reason that variants are considered problematic.

I can fully agree with this, and am actually very happy to hear about
this direction.

I also understand that you guys appreciate some help in improving the
documentation. Is there a good place to start?

I'm afraid I have little time, but perhaps can take up a few smaller
tasks for starters. The following query does list most documentation
issues. Is there someone coordinating this?

https://trac.macports.org/query?status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&group=component&component=%21ports&component=%21base&order=priority

Thanks,
Freek