[MacPorts] #60044: gpsd: python34 variant depends on nonexistent py34-serial port

[MacPorts]

#60044: gpsd: python34 variant depends on nonexistent py34-serial port
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  Reporter:  ryandesign       |      Owner:  michaelld
      Type:  defect           |     Status:  assigned
  Priority:  Normal           |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports            |    Version:  2.6.2
Resolution:                   |   Keywords:
      Port:  gpsd, py-serial  |
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Comment (by fhgwright):

 The obvious fix is to remove the python34 variant, though I'm not
 particularly a fan of the zealous removal of perfectly functional
 subports/variants based on older Python versions (it was the gratuitous
 removal of py34-serial that caused this in the first place).  If the same
 philosophy were applied to OS versions, MacPorts wouldn't run on anything
 older than 10.13.

 This is actually a "soft" dependency in the sense that the absence of py-
 serial only causes the loss of a subset of the functionality of two of the
 vendor-specific GPSD programs (which most people probably don't even use),
 and everything else works without it.  It's included as a dependency
 mainly as a convenience, since it's a fairly lightweight dependency.
 Replacing the dependency with an info message in the +python34 case would
 be another possibility.

 I always test the upstream GPSD code against Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+
 (though there are currently issues with 3.8), which requires some local
 patches to put back removed subports of some dependencies.

 BTW, does the fact that this arose at all on the buildbots mean that
 consideration is being given to offering precompiled binaries for non-
 default variants (which is otherwise extremely rare)?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/60044#comment:1>
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