What have I forgotten about specifying which Perl should be /opt/local/bin/perl?

[Gabriel Rosenkoetter]

On 2022-01-21 23:48 EST, Kastus Shchuka wrote:
> If you want to see just the active port, you may trim down the output like this:
> 
> $ port installed and active and perl5
> The following ports are currently installed:
>    perl5 @5.28.3_0+perl5_30 (active)
> 
> Hope this helps to reduce confusion.

Thank you!

It does!

I think the [+] label, in the output of `port info <whatever>` is a 
confusing UI/UX choice, especially in the context of the + as an 
argument to `port install <port> +<port>_version` to request activation 
of a specific Port version.

I think displaying the default/anticipated version makes a lot of sense, 
I'm just saying the way that's expressed (and that the currently 
"active" version isn't expressed at all in *that* output) is confusing.

That is: I think using + both to say "install this version" and 
"regardless of what's active, our default would've been this" is a 
confusing conflation of symbols.

Maybe `port info …` should use another symbol (*?) there, and should 
display the active version by bracketing the version name?

That is, manually editing the output I posted earlier, maybe this format 
would be more clear:

[7] (gr at wedge:~)% port info perl5
perl5 @5.28.3 (lang)
Sub-ports:            perl5.16, perl5.18, perl5.20, perl5.22, perl5.24,
                       perl5.26, perl5.28, perl5.30, perl5.32, perl5.34
Variants:             perl5_26, [*]perl5_28, perl5_30, perl5_32,
                       [perl5_34]
…
* version standard, [bracketed] version active

I didn't edit the first line there because I haven't (yet) looked at the 
code, so I don't understand where it's coming from. I'm confused about 
why that'd read "perl5 @5.28.3 (lang)" rather than "perl5 @5.34.0 
(lang)" on the system in question.

I guess that's an expression (by way of a DB query) of what a future 
`port install` would presume was available, but I don't think it's an 
accurate expression of what the installed software should expect to find 
out of `env perl`.

Do I continue to miss something here?

(I'm amply aware of the mechanisms available to write and suggest this 
alternate display through a pull request. I'm sending email instead to 
ask whether other people agree with my UX confusion and plausible change.)

-- 
Gabriel Rosenkoetter (he/him)
gr at eclipsed.net
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