plplot fails to build

[Joshua Root]

Alexy Khrabrov wrote:
> Ah, in fact I built the whole gnome stack with +no_x11 (gtk-osx), and
> plplot apparently supports cairo quartz drivers -- we just need to
> tell it not to use X11 somehow.
> 
>> /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_science_plplot/work/plplot-5.9.0/drivers/cairo.c:43:24:
>> error: cairo-xlib.h: No such file or directory
> 
> Also, plplot variants only include python, java, and octave.  Who
> decides that OCaml and Ada are not needed on a Mac?  :)   Similarly,
> SWIG lacks OCaml although it has it in the source.  What's the idea
> with cutting things from the ports?  Can there be a "full" install by
> default -- if a package provides everything?  E.g., one may have OCaml
> from source, so you may use OCaml bingings even if OCaml is not in
> macports.

Mostly it's the sort of lame tradeoff between too many dependencies and
not enough functionality that comes from the lack of a fix for
<http://trac.macports.org/ticket/126>.

Also there are factors like simply nobody thought to add an ocaml
variant. We're not going to start building against random user-installed
software that may or may not work. See
<http://trac.macports.org/wiki/FAQ#WhyisMacPortsusingitsownlibraries>.

- Josh