On 01/02/2013, at 11:04 AM, Kevin Walzer wrote: > Hmmm, seems port has learned some new tricks over the years that I wasn't > aware of . :-) Kudos.
Another thing a GUI can do is encapsulate tricks like that, which are not easy to find in "man port" unless you know they are already there … :-) There is also the question of error reporting. This list is full of users getting into difficulties with Macports (which is where this thread started IIRC) and time and time again we see "Attach a log", "Where do I find a log?", etc. Maybe a GUI could standardise some of what happens when a build fails and save everybody some time. Finally, I can remember my own first experiences with Macports. I went straight for the jackpot --- "sudo port install kdegames4". That would have been fine on the GUI I had used for years in Linux, OpenSuSE Yast2, because all packages are binary and most dependencies are in the initial Linux installation. Some hours later … with a new Macbook Pro that was feeling dangerously hot … and with vital notes re DBus and KDE-based installations scrolling up faster than I could read them … all a bit hair-raising for a newbie. Luckily I was a hard-bitten veteran, but new to the Macbook and Macports, so I did not panic ... I think a GUI could, for example, check the dependencies and warn if there are going to be a lot of them. It could also retain notes in a pane or under a button, to be ready for review when the install is complete. Well, my 2c … oh, and I just discovered, after about 18 months' use of Macports, the "port notes" command, so please don't any CLI jockeys point that out … :-) Cheers, Ian W. P.S. I *love* CLI, its brevity and sheer power, but GUI can open up a whole new world to non expert users. See: http://www.guidebookgallery.org/articles/microelectronicsandthepersonalcomputer "Microelectronics and the Personal Computer", Scientific American, Sept 1977, by Alan C Kay, the guy who started it all … The article still reads pretty well. _______________________________________________ macports-users mailing list macports-users@lists.macosforge.org https://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo/macports-users