On Monday 02 February 2009 6:39:25 pm Bill Moran wrote: > In response to Warren Block <wbl...@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 ...
+1,000,000 on your idea. Yes .. you are absolutely right ... even if you know your way around make && gcc && compiling software .. and even if you _really_ know your way around make && gcc && compiling software, there's no chance on earth that anyone can tell what does every single option on every single Makefile actually mean. As you pointed out: [ ] BRG [X] QFZ means _nothing_ to 99.9% of the users... Be Really Grumpy? Buy Red Goggles? Quite Faster Zapping?? Quit Filtering Zealots?? This kind of things really hurts the "good documentation" reputation that FreeBSD has rightfully earned. And I do agree with you: " 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. " And once again .. this is the way to go for me too: > 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) no need to break anything ... just _be_verbose_ Regards -- Blessings Gonzalo Nemmi _______________________________________________ freebsd-ports@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-ports-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
