Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 07:20:31 -0500 From: Wesley Shields <wxs@FreeBSD.org> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> Cc: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>, ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A plea or sanity in port options menu Message-ID: <20090204122031.GQ4134@atarininja.org> In-Reply-To: <20090202153925.5f4ae6d3.wmoran@potentialtech.com> References: <20090202141835.b44d09be.wmoran@potentialtech.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.0902021302230.37428@wonkity.com> <20090202153925.5f4ae6d3.wmoran@potentialtech.com>
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On Mon, Feb 02, 2009 at 03:39:25PM -0500, Bill Moran wrote: > In response to Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>: > > > On Mon, 2 Feb 2009, Bill Moran wrote: > > > > > How about: > > > > > > Options for port-fu > > > [ ] BRG Bernstein Riggs Guillotine parsing > > > [X] QFZ Quantum Freeze Zulu rending > > > > > > At least that one gives me _some_ idea what those TLAs mean. > > > > There was talk some time ago of having extended descriptions. Several > > ideas, but the one that made the most sense to me would be a box at the > > bottom that would display a description as you moved through the > > options: > > > > [.] BRG > > [X] QFZ > > > > Bernstein Riggs Guillotine parsing > > > > with the . representing the cursor/highlight position. Move down and > > the bottom line would change to say "Quantum Freeze Zulu rending". The > > nice thing about the box at the bottom is it would give a full line or > > possibly several lines for explanations. > > > > Seems like it could be added without breaking the existing system with > > an optional OPTIONS_DESC variable that would correspond with OPTIONS. > > I don't really know how hard that would be; ideas are cheap, > > implementation more costly. > > I don't think there's any need for any new features in the ports > infrastructure. I think it's just a matter of Makefile authors taking > the time to describe their options. A quick test of some ports turns > up this one: > > [ ] OPENGL OpenGL support > > True but useless. How about: > > [ ] OPENGL Use OpenGL graphics library > > ...which, at least give the user _some_ idea what they're doing. > > OpenGL probably isn't a good example, however. It's pretty easy to Google > OpenGL and figure out what it is. Here's some more bizarre options: > > [X] EPUB Epub modules > [X] EXTENSIONS Extensions > [X] TEMPLATE Templates > [X] TOOLS Tools > > I mean, if I enable "Extensions", what happens? How do I figure out > what happens? I have to read the Makefile, at which point having these > options on a menu is pretty pointless. I mean, I can't even come up > with a Google search to help me figure out what "tools" are involved > here. > > There are some ports that do this very well. For example: > [ ] NLS Use internationalized messages > [ ] PAM Build with PAM support (server only) > [ ] LDAP Build with LDAP authentication support > [ ] MIT_KRB5 Build with MIT's kerberos support > [ ] HEIMDAL_KRB5 Builds with Heimdal kerberos support > [ ] OPTIMIZED_CFLAGS Builds with compiler optimizations (-O3) > [X] XML Build with XML data type (server) > [X] TZDATA Use internal timezone database (server) > [ ] DEBUG Builds with debugging symbols > [ ] ICU Use ICU for unicode collation (server) > [ ] INTDATE Builds with 64-bit date/time type (server) > > I mean, a Google on ICU is liable to bring up all sorts of medical drama > websites, but I can do a search for "ICU unicode" and find my answer on > the first result. Not only am I told that optimized compiler flags are > an option, but I'm told the exact one that will be used (-O3) > > The porters handbook doesn't seem to offer any helpful advice on these: > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/porters-handbook/makefile-options.html > > In fact, the examples it provides are excellent examples of doing it > WRONG. > > Let me see about making a patch to the porters handbook to provide some > advice ... While I'm not opposed to being verbose in the short descriptions there is a limit to the length of the message. If you want more accurate descriptions I have done the work to make it happen (ports/123185), and it is now sitting in portmgr territory. It's a modification to bsd.port.mk but it is the best way to truly solve the problem since there is a length limitation to the short field. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=ports/123185 -- WXS
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