Obsolete Ports for firefox-x11 and thunderbird-x11

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jan 9, 2014, at 06:33, Johannes Kastl wrote:

> I just stumbled upon the ports for firefox and thunderbird, and
> thought this would be an easy way to ensure I always have a recent
> version on each machine, where port upgrade outdated is run periodically.
> 
> But they are, how to put this delicately, stinking old? Or am I
> missing something here?

You are correct. They are very outdated.

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/33069

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/33068


>> $ port info thunderbird-x11 firefox-x11 thunderbird-x11 @2.0.0.22
>> (mail, x11) Variants:             debug, universal
>> 
>> Description:          Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and
>> easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of
>> features such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell
>> checker, extension support, and much more. Homepage:
>> http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
>> 
>> Build Dependencies:   pkgconfig Library Dependencies: libidl,
>> glib2, zip, gtk2, gnome-vfs, gnome-icon-theme, cairo, nspr 
>> Platforms:            darwin License:              MPL Maintainers:
>> nomaintainer at macports.org -- firefox-x11 @7.0.1_3 (www, x11) 
>> Variants:             debug, gnome, official_branding
>> 
>> Description:          Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more
>> safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. Homepage:
>> http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
>> 
>> Build Dependencies:   findutils, pkgconfig, autoconf213, yasm,
>> apple-gcc42 Library Dependencies: heimdal, gconf, esound,
>> libcanberra, findutils, gtk2, mesa, xorg-libXt Platforms:
>> darwin License:              unknown Maintainers:
>> nomaintainer at macports.org
> 
> Shouldn't we delete them, so no user will actually use these old
> farts? TB 2.0 is from 2007, FF 7 is from 2001. If these are the actual
> versions, I do not want to know how many critical bugs have been fixed
> since…

I agree. They should be deleted.

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/39022

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/39023

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/39024


> Of course it would be nice if someone would step up and maintain them.
> I'm lacking both time and experience.

What benefit would you get from having updated versions of these ports, that you would not get by downloading the pre-compiled binaries from the developer’s web site? The previous maintainer of these ports gave up because it was an enormous amount of work to build these complicated software packages. There would have to be a good reason for someone to continue to invest that amount of time.