After some comments sent both off and onlist, I made some changes. I
plan to make more extensions. I figured that the interest in this
document was larger than I initially expected, hence for convenience, I
will supply diffs of changes I make to the list.
On 12-12-2005 10:01:28 +0100, Grobian wrote:
> Anywayz, I wrote a new page yesterday:
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/macos/targets.xml
--
Fabian Groffen
Gentoo for Mac OS X Project -- Interim Lead
--- targets.xml
+++ targets.xml
@@ -71,9 +71,14 @@
the first case, the package manager is responsible for
building the (core) system, while in the latter case, the
package manager builds on top of an existing system to enhance
- it. Gentoo Portage is the primary package manager on its
- GNU/Linux distribution, and as such, the Gentoo Portage tree
- matches this goal.
+ it. Please note that this is by no means meant as a formal
+ definition of the general concept "package manager". Within
+ this document it is used as entity that is natively
+ responsible for managing software packages on the OS it works
+ on. Effectively, this means that Gentoo Portage is not the
+ primary package manager on Mac OS X. Gentoo Portage is the
+ primary package manager on its GNU/Linux distribution, and as
+ such, the Gentoo Portage tree matches this goal.
</p>
</body>
@@ -104,7 +109,9 @@
<li>
Because Portage installs next to the OS, in the same
directories, no fancy path settings are necessary,
- everything is installed in default places.
+ everything is installed in default places. Note that the
+ relatively large overlap of the Gentoo Linux file system
+ layout and Darwin's one, causes this advantage.
</li>
<li>
Portage can use tools provided by the OS, this avoids
@@ -113,7 +120,11 @@
<li>
Once a tool provided by the OS is outdated, or not recent
enough, Portage cannot update it without overwriting the OS
- provided one.
+ provided one. Note that this doesn't necessarily have to be
+ a drawback, as from a progressive viewpoint this allows more
+ control over the system, e.g. breaking a possible lock-in by
+ the OS vendor. In that sense, also downgrading a package
+ version applies.
</li>
<li>
The vendor of the OS that provides a tool, might have
@@ -126,8 +137,8 @@
Because Portage installs its files next to where the OS
installs them, the primary package manager of the OS might
install a package and overwrite files provided by Portage.
- It is hard (if not impossible) for Portage to figure this
- out and execute correcting actions.
+ It might be hard for Portage to figure this out in time, and
+ possibly execute correcting actions.
</li>
</ul>
@@ -170,9 +181,9 @@
will happen.
</li>
<li>
- Since Portage will be the one to decide what is installed
- and what not, it will be possible to leave out much unwanted
- software.
+ Since Portage will be the one to decide how and when the OS
+ and extra tools are installed, it will be possible to leave
+ out much unwanted software.
</li>
<li>
Building a system from scratch requires skills, usually not
@@ -182,8 +193,9 @@
</li>
<li>
A tree that encodes the logic and assumptions of the Darwin
- software packages needs to be built, which more or less
- throws away the efforts of the Gentoo Portage tree.
+ software packages needs to be built. The question remains
+ how much of the efforts of the Gentoo Portage tree can be
+ reused for this.
</li>
</ul>
@@ -322,7 +334,7 @@
</p>
<p>
Prefix support in Portage has reached an alpha level in the
- development branches. This -- at the moment clumpsy -- but
+ development branches. This -- at the moment clumsy -- but
more or less usuable product is used to find out what changes
will be necessary to the Gentoo Portage tree. The major work
of making Portage prefix aware has been done, and the
