liboil success

[Robert J. Hansen]

Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> Could the reinplace command be used in the portfile to automate these
> changes?

I don't know; I'm new to MacPorts.

> Also, shouldn't we update to liboil 0.3.10? Unless someone knows a
> reason we should not.

I hope you'll forgive the newbie to the list coming into your sandbox
and telling you there are problems, but I think "getting GNOME to
compile on Mactel" is a much bigger priority item than "getting liboil
to 0.3.10".

I came to MacPorts just a few days ago and here's the list of obstacles
I've run into:

* Bug tracking is fundamentally broken.  Even though I've registered,
  I can't log in to file bug reports.  Or, for that matter, even browse
  them.

* evolution-data-server refuses to build without manual Makefile
  tweaking.

* liboil won't compile unless you know enough about GNU assembler and
  its history to recognize that liboil is using stuff not supported on
  Apple's antiquated gas.

* gnome-applets won't even build, and I still can't figure out why.
  Something to do with libxklavier.  Which is installed and in the
  proper place, but gswitchit_config.c in gnome-applets is expecting
  a libxklavier header file which the libxklavier package doesn't
  provide.

* All of my problems have been reported on this list before, but
  I have not been able to find solutions on this list.



Speaking as a newcomer to MacPorts, the experience has been very
disheartening.  Some individuals have been very helpful (Daniel
Ericsson, for instance, gave me great help with the
evolution-data-server problem).  But by and large, the experience has
been unpleasant and discouraging.  I'm using MacPorts to get GNOME
installed on my system, and it seems there's nothing but obstacles.