Dependency Problem of Upgrading Gnuplot: A Possible Bug

[Daniel J. Luke]

On Jul 24, 2007, at 7:32 PM, Xin Liu wrote:
> A user is simply confused if they are inconsistent. For instance, when
> the guy invokes "install" for gnuplot (and he has MacTex installed),
> he is relaxed to find that no extra tex system is installed. However,
> when later a newer version of gnuplot is available and he invokes
> "upgrade", he suddenly finds that an additional tex system is
> installed! Isn't this a bad user experience caused by the
> inconsistence?

yes, but it can be solved by changing the portfile (and perhaps  
adding a MacTex portfile?)

> At least I didn't feel good, and I reported this as a
> bug and spent time looking into the source code only to discover that
> this is a "feature" and I kind of wasted my time.

You didn't waste your time, it's just that your suggested fix causes  
other problems. If you can think of a better way to do it, I'm sure  
Macports would be happy to incorporate your changes.

> As to the solution for the problem, it really depends on the attitude
> towards external dependencies. I'd suggest (maybe these are completely
> wrong, because I haven't read through previous discussions and may
> miss a lot of points):
>
> 1. If ultimately the external dependencies will be removed completely,
> "install" command should treat bin/lib style dependencies the same way
> as "upgrade" command, and portfile authors should be advised not to
> introduce any external dependencies using bin/lib style.

This is the current status. We want to minimize as much as possible  
external dependencies, so bin/lib style dependencies should generally  
not be used (unless there's a really good idea to use it).

--
Daniel J. Luke
+========================================================+
| *---------------- dluke at geeklair.net ----------------* |
| *-------------- http://www.geeklair.net -------------* |
+========================================================+
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