Hi!

Might I suggest to use macro_optional_find_package() to detect presence of 
Marble? From a packaging point of view it would be more elegant to be able to 
avoid opportunistic dependencies on large and complex projects like Marble.

The reason: Marble is one of a tiny set of applications that try very (too) 
hard to be as Mac-like as possible when built on Mac, and has a build system 
that forces a standalone (= all-inclusive) app bundle on that platform. This 
means that the Marble library cannot be found and most likely not even be 
shared with other applications.

It's not impossible to patch the build system to provide choice during the 
Marble build, and this is what I've done a couple of times to create a proper 
MacPorts package, where Marble's shared resources go into their traditional 
designated locations. I've put that patch up for review, but have had no 
feedback on it at all. As a result of that lack of interest for being able to 
use the Marble library in other apps (on Mac), and also because the patch 
requires refactoring at almost every update I am considering seriously to drop 
the port.

Cheers,
René

PS: Google Earth can be driven by external apps IIRC, and it's even possible to 
open Google Maps in a browser with a set of GPS co-ordinates. Maybe it wouldn't 
be too hard to use that in a fallback plugin?

Reply via email to