Issues with oudated ports / GitHub

[Chris Jones]

> On 7 Oct 2016, at 6:08 pm, Daniel J. Luke <dluke at geeklair.net> wrote:
> 
> On Oct 7, 2016, at 11:59 AM, Marcel Bischoff <marcel at herrbischoff.com> wrote:
>>>> It pains me to say that Homebrew is running circles around MacPorts in
>>>> the department of current available packages.
>>> 
>>> [citation needed] ;-)
>> 
>> Gladly. I have written a small script to check that. Here are a few of
>> the results (of some tools I work with/run on a daily basis):
>> 
>> ghc
>> MacPorts version: 7.8.3_4
>> Homebrew version: 8.0.1
> 
> https://trac.macports.org/ticket/48899
> 
> I don't see a patch attached there, but I imagine one could look at the homebrew recipe and pull out what is necessary?
> 
>> fontforge
>> MacPorts version: 20120731_3
>> Homebrew version: 20161001
>> pandoc
>> MacPorts version: 1.12.4.2_1
>> Homebrew version: 1.17.2
> 
> both of these are nomaintainer - we'd be happy to have you maintain the ports if you're interested in keeping them updated
> 
>> mutt
>> MacPorts version: 1.6.0_1
>> Homebrew version: 1.7.0
> 
> % port info mutt
> mutt @1.6.0_1 (mail)
> Replaced by:          neomutt
> 
> Description:          This port has been replaced by neomutt.
> Homepage:             https://www.macports.org/
> 
> Platforms:            darwin
> License:              unknown
> Maintainers:          nomaintainer at macports.org
> 
> (neomutt is @20161002)
> 
>> boost
>> MacPorts version: 1.59.0_2
>> Homebrew version: 1.62.0
>> 
>> fdupes
>> MacPorts version: 1.51
>> Homebrew version: 1.6.1
>> 
>> imapsync
>> MacPorts version: 1.684
>> Homebrew version: 1.727
>> 
>> notmuch
>> MacPorts version: 0.22.2
>> Homebrew version: 0.23
>> 
>> sqlmap
>> MacPorts version: 0.9_1
>> Homebrew version: 1.0.10
> 
> (I'm too lazy to look up why all of these might not be up to the current version - hopefully you've opened tickets [with patches wherever possible] on any of these you care about).
> 
>>>> If time and manpower is the problem, wouldn't it be better to move to a
>>>> GitHub-based approach like Homebrew does?
>>> 
>>> That doesn't necessarily fix the problem. It's worth noting that there already is a plan to transition to github.
>> 
>> Why is that?
> 
> moving to GitHub doesn't magically make more interested parties make quality contributions.

I agree that moving to github is not going to suddenly make people where not not previously looking for a packaging system for OSX suddenly start using macports. However, I completely agree with Marcel that moving to github will mean if someone does find their way to macports they will be more likely to stay and contribute, as the chances are they will already be familiar with git, as thats what the cool kids do these days. Currently, once they find out about svn, and trac, and yes i agree the little tired looking web pages, i suspect they are more likely to drift away. So the move to git will help.

Chris

> 
>> Also: what do you think the problem actually is and how to
>> rectify it? I'd be very interested to hear that.
> 
> I'm not convinced there's a general problem (other than the continual need to try to get more people involved in the project).
> 
>>>> This way far more people would
>>>> contribute.
>>> 
>>> hopefully that's true, but there's no evidence to support that assertion at this time.
>> 
>> Comparing the contribution rate of Homebrew to that of MacPorts, it
>> certainly wouldn't hurt things.
> 
> I'm not aware of anyone who has actual numbers on this (keeping in mind that the respective user communities are different sizes).
> 
>> On the contrary. Plus, you are just
>> stating the obvious: something has not been done in an exact way,
>> therefore there is no evidence that this exact way yields this exact
>> result. Duh.
> 
> I'll be very pleased if you're right and that moving to GitHub will bring in a large volume of (new) high-quality submissions.
> -- 
> Daniel J. Luke
> 
> 
> 
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