[Macports] QT5 For Mac port

[Michael Dickens]

On Thu, Jul 11, 2013, at 12:06 PM, vincent habchi wrote:
> I will have a look while I am on holiday later this month, but I cannot
> endorse the charge of being THE maintainer of qt5, even if I succeed: I
> would place the port under the ‘openmaintainer’ regime.

Not my idea of "fun" while on holiday, but to each :)  I'm happy to be
listed as a co-maintainer as well as it being openmaintainer, if
you/me/someone gets to that point.

> > On 11 juil. 2013, at 15:51, Michael Dickens <michaelld at macports.org> wrote:
> > MacPorts is a great piece of software, and many of its developers are already remunerated for (at least part of)
> > the work they do (e.g., by the company they work for; by some outside
> > contract -- either of which has an interest in some specific ports). 
> 
> Well, that’s somewhat a surprise to me. I do it for fun and the personal
> pleasure of being somehow helpful to a large number of people throughout
> the world.

I did it for my PhD dissertation advisor on stipend for a while (along
with 40+ hours / week of dissertation work, so I'm not saying the wage
was very good, but it was a form of remuneration).  Then once I
graduated I did it for fun; I still do some ports for "fun", but more
along the lines of your second point: the personal pleasure of working
with, and being helpful to, folks around the world.  Since then, I've
met (online) and worked with others who are being remunerated for at
least part of their MacPorts work.  So, when a couple months ago a
company I with during my PhD dissertation approached me about a
maintenance contract for a couple of ports that I maintain, I sprang for
the opportunity: why not get remunerated for doing something I love
doing, for something I'd be doing anyway? If you look at the Linux
kernel, or Qt (4 or 5), you'll find lots of folks from companies
involved, getting paid to work on those projects (at least part time)
because their company has an interest in the project and wants to be
involved.

> But I can easily imagine that keeping up with qt is such a pain that it is well worth some form of reward.

Qt4 has been a pain to maintain, partly because of the options for
installing it on Mac OS X, and partly because Qt is a BIG project with
lots of places where things can go wrong on different versions of Mac OS
X (and, other OSs). I would love to be remunerated for keeping Qt4
going, but I'm not; it's not exactly "fun" though sometimes the hacking
is enlightening. - MLD