FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: unix software without tears

[Nathan Whitehorn <nathanw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Axel Dörfler wrote:
> "Jonas Sundström" <jonas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>   
> > I think we could benefit from using NetBSD's 'pkgsrc'
> > for unix software management. (and unix software only)
> > It's unix-centric, of course, but it's far from NetBSD-only.
> >     
>
> I wouldn't consider it, if it's thought for unix software only; I would 
> always only want one single update mechanism in the system.
>
> And what good would it bring?
>   
I find such a thing immensely useful on OS X, and the popularity of both 
Darwinports and Fink attest to general appreciation for this. Sometimes 
you need some UNIX software package -- I use LaTeX, gnuplot, PAW, and 
GEANT4 in daily work, along with a variety of other UNIX-only software. 
They are amazingly useful (at least for what I do), and standardized -- 
there is going to be no Haiku version of these. Certain things, like any 
TeX distribution, or PAW, are also immensely painful to build by hand, 
or have numerous non-obvious dependencies. Things like Darwinports are 
essential for this. In addition, the lack of any standard OS system for 
this on OS X (there is package management, but not this kind of thing), 
means that there are now two mutually incompatible systems for it, 
neither of which integrate well into the operating system.

Even if we don't use pkgsrc (which I rather like, using it extensively 
on NetBSD and Linux), we should provide something like it, or at least 
officially bless some such system.
-Nathan