General question about MacPorts

[Wilden Mark]

I'm new to Mac OS and to MacPorts and I could use some guidance.

A couple of days ago, I posted about the inability to build  
mod_python. There appears to be a problem building apr-1.2.12, which  
mod_python and others (like Subversion) depend on. A ticket was added  
for this (#14470). My questions are these:

1) Would this be considered a non-priority problem? Is it common for  
MacPorts to be unable to build vitally important tools like mod_python  
and subversion? Trust me, I'm not being snarky - I'd just like to know.

2) If that's in fact the case, what are the alternatives, if someone  
(like me) has been using MacPorts for other things? It appears (to  
this newbie) that you can't tell MacPorts, "hey, you don't need to  
build this - I built it myself," so it doesn't consider that it has a  
missing dependency.

3) Is MacPorts really just a convenience, and not something that one  
should depend on? Mr. Mod_Python (Graham Dumpleton) recommends not  
using it, for example. Again, I don't know whether that's true or not  
- I'm just interested in an objective answer.

This is NOT a flame. I respect and admire the MacPorts project, and  
I'm aware that the folks who are working on it are doing so for the  
good of the community, for no personal gain. The thing is, I'm a  
database guy - I just need some very basic functionality.

If someone could give their opinion on the questions above, I'd very  
much appreciate it!

///ark