conflict with macports

[Adam Dershowitz Ph.D., P.E.]

On Jun 12, 2014, at 3:46 PM, Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 9:25 PM, Joshua Root wrote:
>> 
>>> I received the same email as you did.
>>> I suggested that he could use MacPorts into /opt/z88 or something similar.  But, given this email chain, I will instead suggest using dylibbundler.
>> 
>> It's not clear exactly what they're doing that prevents them from
>> installing into a different prefix.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't know the project, but my guess is ...
> 
> Lack of manpower (and understanding about best packaging practice on
> different OSes). It is also not impossible that they simply don't know
> how to install MacPorts elsewhere.

I have explained that option to them.  So, hopefully they do understand it now.


> 
> Take a look at their sources, particularly at their Makefiles. Or take
> a look at the manual to see installation instructions.
> 
> By far the easiest short-term solution would be to make a Portfile and
> then advise everyone to use the package from MacPorts as opposed to
> installing their binary package.

The difficulty there is that they are using an old libpng.  So, they would have to rebuilt their binary as well, and then require everyone to install MacPorts.  It seems that they have built installers to move everything, so I think that they are aiming at a set of users that are not necessarily very computer savvy, and might not want MacPorts (much as I love it) just to use their application.    


> In the next step someone can help them rewrite the Makefiles. And then
> fix the binary package, step by step.
> 
>> (Unless perhaps the only guy that knew how to
>> build it left the company...)
> 
>> From what I understand it's a university professor (maybe just writing
> the software in the free time). But you can just as well rewrite that
> into "the student (studentische Hilfskraft) working there last summer
> graduated".
> 
>> In any case, it's difficult for us to help find a solution when the
>> problem hasn't been clearly laid out.
> 
> My bet is lack of knowledge and resources. (I could write a long list
> of things that could be improved, but I don't think that criticizing
> that software would be in place. From the screenshots it seems to be
> an amazing piece of software, it just needs some human power to
> reorganize the files a bit and optimize the packaging.)

I agree that it looks very impressive.  My agree with your bet.   Although, it seems that they did try some things pretty quickly, so someone is listening and trying.


> 
> For anyone wondering where the sources are: just fetch the 63 MB
> "binary" from http://www.z88.de/z88os/english.html.
> 
> Creating a MacPorts package should be relatively straightforward, even
> though minor fixes in the Makefile might be needed.
> 

I haven’t looked into their licensing, but it seems that there are two different projects.  Z88, and Z88Aurora.  The second one includes a pre and post processor, and seems to be newer.  BUT it is free but not Open Source. I believe that the source that you have mentioned above is just for Z88, not for Aurora.