Accessing user command list????

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Dec 22, 2009, at 09:06, Jasper Frumau wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 5:48 PM, Ronnie Grubaugh wrote:
> 
>> I've been reading about open source software and found it interesting, mostly because it's not controlled by corporations, and I thought or assumed through my understanding, that Mac ports is if not necessary, needed to expedite and apply open source software with my Mac OSx 10.6.2 system. Is my interpretation correct?
> 
> That is partly correct. Mac Ports is used to for the use of OS packages on your Mac. Packages that are Unix or Linux based Open Source programs. But quite a few open source packages can be downloaded and installed directly from the web as well. Take Gimp for instance. There is a Mac package (.dmg image) online for you to download and install effortlessly and there is a Mac Port for it as well See http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/ . It offers information on Gimp using Mac Ports and just by grabbing the application bundle and installing it like a regular program.  I used the .dmg. Just download it and double click it and you can install a great Open Source Graphics editor.
> 
> For OS packages like Gimp and all packages you can install via Mac Ports you do need X11. See http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki for information on it. In brief it is the GUI that is needed to run OS Linux/UNIX based software on a Mac. Maybe you already installed it..

Ronnie,

As Jasper said, some open-source software is designed for the Mac, and someone has made pretty packaged Mac OS X downloads available. But I would estimate that the majority of software is not distributed in such a Mac-friendly fashion. Instead, you need to download the source code and compile it yourself, possibly following an involved set of steps, possibly involving modifying the source code in subtle or even complex ways to get it to work. The purpose of every portfile in MacPorts is to encode that set of steps, those patches, anything necessary to install that software on Mac OS X, so that you don't have to figure it out on your own. Someone else (e.g. a port maintainer) has already figured it out for you so that all you need to do is "sudo port install whatever". Some find it convenient to use MacPorts even to install those programs that are already available in Mac-friendly form elsewhere, for the convenience of having everything managed by MacPorts.


>> Obviously you can tell I am a newbie and still have a lot of needed exploration into Mac ports, to better understand. Working proficiently with Mac ports may be above my present skill level.

Please spend some time with the Guide.

http://guide.macports.org

Hopefully it will answer some questions for you about what MacPorts is, how to use it, how it works. If you have more questions, please ask (and remember to Reply All in your responses so they go to the mailing list too).