[MacPorts] #46029: port submission: qtchooser

[MacPorts]

#46029: port submission: qtchooser
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  Reporter:  rjvbertin@…  |      Owner:  macports-tickets@…
      Type:  submission   |     Status:  new
  Priority:  Normal       |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports        |    Version:  2.3.3
Resolution:               |   Keywords:
      Port:  qtchooser    |
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Comment (by rjvbertin@…):

 Replying to [comment:18 larryv@…]:
 > Okay, except that this port sounds an awful lot like the `perl5` one,
 and we very much want to avoid that type of mess again.

 I don't know what perl5 mess you are referring to, but I imagine it must
 have to do with the potentially huge body of perl scripts delivered by
 ports which can be dependencies for other ports.

 Qt is not an interpreter and while you can draw a parallel between a port
 providing a set of libraries that depend on Qt (and hence a specific Qt
 version) the potential mess is much smaller because Qt guarantees backward
 compatibility inside a major version. As long as MacPorts doesn't provide
 separate, coinstallable ports for minor Qt releases, port:qtchooser should
 not create any messes. At least not as long as Qt-dependents use the Qt
 Portgroups and either the specific `qmake` (or CMake modules) for which
 the Portgroups define variables. `qtchooser` just allows the user to fire
 up the appropriate, say, Designer application from a shell (`designer
 -qt=<version>`), or to configure a software project against a Qt install
 of choice (`qmake -qt=<version>`).

 Users who really know what they're doing can even use the qtchooser
 command itself to define an environment for an official (e.g. a
 commercial) Qt install so that they can configure source to build against
 that using the same `qmake` proxy in ${prefix}/bin. The resulting binaries
 will of course depend on the external Qt libraries.
 It's a convenience utility that is very much intended for developers (but
 not as a potential dependency for other ports :)).

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/46029#comment:20>
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