I just converted a port over to the new options structure and have a few
observations. I have not been involved in any of the discussions about the
structure as I didn't have the time to get involved. However, a couple things
came to mind during the process:
1. The Port handbook is actually quite good in the information it provides.
However, it does presume that you know a few things about the port structure
that are probably common knowledge to anyone involved with it, but not to those
of us who just "use" it. The first update I made to the Makefile cause a slew
of make errors that were pretty much useless. They meant nothing to me. My
first thought was that somehow I had munged one of the includes and managed to
include some random file rather than the right one.
My second idea was that I had typed the option names wrong, but that didn't
seem to fit with the error messages either. After quite a while of reading the
handbook, I noticed that in the PORT_OPTIONS clause you have to precede the
option name with a M. That is not at all obvious and is easily missed. Why an
M is also baffling. I am sure there is a reason other then it just won't work
otherwise.
2. The syntax for a conditional expression for an option that is selected is
completely different from that for an option that is not selected. That is
just weird. The use of {} for one and () for the other again must have some
reason other than it just won't work otherwise. No clue is given in the
handbook.
3. The examples are a bit difficult to distinguish between {} and (). I had
to look quite a few times before I figured that out.
4. The handbook shows for submitting a change to a port the use of a regular
diff. My recollection is that the last time a unified diff was requested so
that things like the file names show.
I only maintain one port so the effort to make the changes would have been
quite minor for additional ports. Its really not that big a change from the
maintainer's point of view._______________________________________________
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