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Date:      Thu, 28 May 2020 02:22:32 +0200
From:      Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@rocketmail.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD Cert
Message-ID:  <20200528022232.662100a3@archlinux>
In-Reply-To: <CAGBxaXm=XtgSvmsgtnqdRZkvOnf_XRo_hV5RCKNy4ApeCtgXMw@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CY4PR19MB165585A7D4670DC49DB5523AF9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <CY4PR19MB1655D45BA9FFA743BE59FDFBF9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <CAGBxaXnWSDs_PQJ=F8HQpz-r=AjyA-1=j1o_eBavdwJ7bhhX7Q@mail.gmail.com> <CY4PR19MB1655FA15206EBD85E8E754B2F9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <CAGBxaX=4%2BkOb6n38X9qSA5Hc-b9MNgL98zPdAPTw4sa2v=7Mbg@mail.gmail.com> <CY4PR19MB16551E5798F0C344FD2962A5F9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <CAGBxaX=s80PW4eyZDsFFYzw2vrXXkvXgn0z_bHf-AHNiRU_8vQ@mail.gmail.com> <CY4PR19MB1655BFB2BEDA186543C3871FF9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <CAGBxaXk-yTvN1mCXwSQtjVv4DAkjfMiQP%2BZGfLqExRa7Op6TOw@mail.gmail.com> <CY4PR19MB1655146321E7517E6FC5E7A0F9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <20200527203627.2c9faae5@archlinux> <21722039-a01f-37d3-e035-6be2950485e2@kicp.uchicago.edu> <CAGBxaXm=XtgSvmsgtnqdRZkvOnf_XRo_hV5RCKNy4ApeCtgXMw@mail.gmail.com>

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My reply is intended as an explanation for the OP, not a reply
addressed to Aryeh Friedman.

On Wed, 27 May 2020 16:48:56 -0400, Aryeh Friedman wrote:
>Will it?  Almost all the best IT/programmers I know started with just
>as difficult of a challenge so if the OP wants to do something hard
>from the get go let them.

Many skilled coders never maintained an official port for a BSD or
Linux distro. Lots of them try to avoid soname issues [1] by not linking
against shared libs of BSD or Linux default installs and they try to
workaround other pitfalls, too. Let alone that some very skilled coders
even don't support BSD or Linux at all.

One of the best, if not the best professional EQ is from fab filters.

"We're not planning support for Linux any time soon. It's a significant
amount of work, and testing is harder than on Windows or Mac because
there are various major Linux distributions, all with subtle
differences. And of course the market is very small."

https://www.fabfilter.com/forum/2924/linux-support-with-new-vst-sdk?replies=3

It's more or less the same for FreeBSD. "Maintaining" even a binary
blob that doesn't link against shared libraries is still time
consuming.

While unskilled but giftet people might learn better when starting
programming a more challenging software, than when programming
something trivial, maintaining a port that needs to fulfil
the policy of an operating system gains not that much, than first
learning the basics without taking care about port guidelines.

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/book.html

The porters handbook and similar guidelines of other operating systems
don't help a novice to become familiar with computers and/or a
particular operating system. Trying to become familiar with computers
and FreeBSD by maintaining a port is like hanging wallpaper to
alongside learn how to lay bricks, too. You could do that, but
especially to learn use of computers, it's way better to start
a little bit structured. IOW first lay bricks, than hang the wallpaper.
Starting with the wallpaper is a poorly structured strategy.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soname



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