Please do not remove Tiger support

[Gleb Mazovetskiy]

I've subscribed to the mailing list just to post this. This is in response
to
https://lists.macports.org/pipermail/macports-dev/2025-January/046014.html,
which I noticed because Tiger support has been ripped out of macports-base
in
https://github.com/macports/macports-base/commit/fe87793b8e5bb4a05bc432a3c3b17b3fb870b0c7
.

I think dropping support for Tiger in this way is quite heavy-handed. I'd
like to ask for a compromise, where Tiger stuff is maintained on a
volunteer best-effort per-issue basis rather than entirely ripped out.

I understand that maintaining Tiger causes some overhead. Only a subset of
packages build on Tiger and that's OK. Trac issues can be closed as wontfix
or ignored until somebody volunteers to fix them. Breaking Tiger
accidentally shouldn't block anyone but please do not break it
deliberately.

Moreover, I think porting to Tiger has recently become much easier because
of 2 things:

   1. gcc14 is now the default for Tiger less than 2 months ago. A modern
   compiler makes many previously used hacks unnecessary.
   https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/26655
   2. There has been incredible progress in legacy-support for Tiger,
   merged today. This brings Tiger much closer to modern macOS SDK, and makes
   . https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/27619

These two changes make it much easier to support Tiger.

I'd like to also share this comment
<https://github.com/macports/macports-base/commit/fe87793b8e5bb4a05bc432a3c3b17b3fb870b0c7#commitcomment-152338386>
from a user on GitHub:

It's extremely unfortunate, and I hope there is room to reconsider this
> decision.
>
> There are many of us who are still end-users and programmers on OS X
> Tiger, and we need MacPort's tools. Tiger was the last MacOS to support
> both OSX programs and Classic Environment, so there are many who still need
> or prefer it for that reason. As well, OSX programs built on Tiger are
> generally also compatible with the next couple of later versions (Leopard
> and Snow Leopard). So, it is also a great system to build programs for,
> since they can reach a wider audience than those that only work on Leopard
> or Snow Leopard.
>
> Removing support for Tiger may also impact Leopard users. The main OS X
> PowerPC web browser (TenFourFox / InterWeb / AquaFox) is designed to build
> in OS X 10.4.11 and is a lifeline to many who want to connect to the
> Internet with their PowerPC computer. There is also efforts to modernize
> web browsing on OS X Tiger, which may be helpful for those on later
> versions of OS X, but ending MacPorts would set back such efforts greatly.
>
> It doesn't seem like it should take a lot to just allow us to keep
> downloading what's already there, let alone that those who still develop
> software for Tiger may still be able to improve what's there further and
> contribute the occasional patch.
>
> Please reconsider the decision to remove support for Tiger.
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