Geant4 - any volunteers?

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 6:44 PM, Frank Schima wrote:
>
> I think we should only support the latest version - which is 9.6p2. I can't believe anyone is depending on our outdated version of it now.

While nobody may be interested in 9.4.p2, I would really really really
like to include Gate (I have a working Portfile for it, but I would
also like to create Gate.app one day - the needed patches are
published somewhere) which usually depends on a very specific version
of Geant4 (and when people write their own simulations, it's also a
high probability that they won't work on a newer version). While Gate
developers try to keep up with Geant4, they usually do it with 6-12
moths of delay. I would find it important to keep at least two latest
versions of Geant4 available if possible. There could be a meta-port
"geant4", so that
   sudo port install geant4 +geant4.9.6
would install the three binaries to path, but so that different
versions wouldn't clash otherwise and could be installed side-by-side.

Btw: Geant4 10.0 beta has just been released!

> Do you have a Portfile for that version in some state? Can you send it to me or attach to one of the tickets? Time permitting, I am interested in helping getting this port updated.

See https://trac.macports.org/ticket/32716. I'm currently trying to
create a port for Geant4 10.0 by modifying that one. (I'm not even
sure if it will compile, but we need to start at some point and
possible submit bug reports before the actual release.)

> Another thought, I think that separating the data into a subport would be a good idea but I'm open to staying with the current all inclusive single port.

I would really really like to see different versions installed
side-by-side. Currently that would be 4.9.5p2, 4.9.6p2 and 4.10.0b1
with geant4 defaulting to 4.9.6p2. In that case it would make sense to
create a portgroup geant (or geant4). It would be very handy to be
able to specify just
    somefunction(G4NDL, 4.3, G4NDL, tar.gz, G4NEUTRONHPDATA,
55493e74cba90e6cb167a5008e138cd7)
rather than

set v_G4NDL             4.3
...
distfiles           geant${version}.tar.gz:cern \
                    G4NDL.${v_G4NDL}.tar.gz:cern \
...
checksums           geant${version}.tar.gz \
                    <checksums> \
                    G4NDL.${G4NDL_v}.tar.gz \
                    <checksums> \
...

I didn't study the subports yet. It would be perfectly ok to use
   depend geant4-data-G4NDL-4.3
or something like this. That would also make it possible to share the
same data file across different versions of Geant4 (also on the same
place), but I don't know how to properly implement that. I'm not yet
skilled enough. One needs approximately 8 data files. If we would keep
2-3 versions of Geant4 alive at the same moment, that would mean up to
24 packages.

Not entirely serious about it, but: are hidden packages possible? ;)
It doesn't help anyone to see that a package geant4-data-G4NDL-4.3 is
available to be installed. It would be nice to have it there
independent of geant4, but it would be a bit confusing for the user.

Mojca