Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:56:25 +0100 From: keramida@freebsd.org (Giorgos Keramidas) To: Tony Maserati <abletony84@gmail.com> Cc: obrien@cs.ucdavis.edu, questions@freebsd.org, obrien@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Just wanted to install vim - had to spend entire day building X11 Message-ID: <xeiaaaj96kgm.fsf@kobe.laptop> In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimPD7Msjc6B-r=YEK26nJQ8nq=5sGUoaS-%2BhJu_@mail.gmail.com> (Tony Maserati's message of "Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:43:13 %2B0100") References: <AANLkTin_c0j9fbp-YMYx4mfdWsc4w3Zx5mgWB09mHbHC@mail.gmail.com> <xeiak4id6sbw.fsf@kobe.laptop> <AANLkTimPD7Msjc6B-r=YEK26nJQ8nq=5sGUoaS-%2BhJu_@mail.gmail.com>
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On Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:43:13 +0100, Tony Maserati <abletony84@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:06 AM, Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
>>On Sun, 9 Jan 2011 22:19:02 +0100, Tony Maserati <abletony84@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I'm just curious - what's the point of including X11 as a dependency
>>> to vim? And then making a vim-lite port (which you usually discover
>>> after installing X11). How about making it vim and vim-x11 instead?
>>
>> Maybe because gvim is really *much* nicer than plain console-based vim
>> sessions.
>>
>> The vim-lite port exists for those cases when you really want to install
>> just plain good ol' vim without all the bells and whistles. You can also
>> install editors/vim with WITHOUT_X11='true' to avoid the pulling of all
>> this X11 stuff.
>
> I hear that - but if I want gvim I'll install gvim. What it's doing
> here is installing something I didn't ask for, well actually, it's
> fooling me into giving me something I don't need.
The tricky bit is that there's no gvim port. There are two choices one
can make when porting software like this:
* Add a default port that installs the 'full experience', and a second
meta-port that has options suitable for minimalists.
* Add a default port that is minimal, and a meta-port that can pull in
all the necessary bits for the full-blown user experience.
I agree that it's confusing to remember which port has chosen which
option, but there isn't much a porter (e.g. obrien in this case) can do
to satisfy *both* groups of users.
I'm sorry that you had to install software that you don't really need
and I can help you clean up by saving your installed ports as 'binary
packages' and re-installing just the bits that you _really_ want to have
around. Other than that, I don't know if there's any way to change the
status quo of the vim ports to be able to satisfy automatically both
types of user needs.
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