Determine before installation whether a port can be installed

[Ken Cunningham]

OK -- So - I am absolutely nobody at all on this list, so please take this following idea gently.

This work you're embarking on (specifying what systems a given port will build on, and which it won't) would seem in fact to be very similar to what I was getting at when I asked about the 'distributions' idea in that ticket I opened a few weeks ago.

The only extra part of this that I was hoping for would the ability to peek back in the port file history and find (and install) the last version of a port file (apache2, say) that was able to be installed on a given system (like SL). 

This ability would solve a lot of troubles for older systems, although there could be the same dependencies issues that this idea will generate as well, perhaps.

As macports moves forward, the caboose of which machines are left behind will continue to move forward as well. But there are working portfiles back there that are still good...

My $0.02.

Ken