From owner-freebsd-newbies Sat Aug 22 13:44:29 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA05018 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Sat, 22 Aug 1998 13:44:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from hme0.mailrouter01.sprint.ca (hme0.mailrouter01.sprint.ca [207.107.250.175]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA05013 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 1998 13:44:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grgaud@sprint.ca) Received: from grgaud (spc-isp-ott-uas-13-44.sprint.ca [209.103.35.145]) by hme0.mailrouter01.sprint.ca (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id QAA21417 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 1998 16:46:08 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19980822164340.007a5100@pop3.sprint.ca> X-Sender: grgaud@pop3.sprint.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1998 16:43:40 -0400 To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG From: "G.R. Gaudreau" Subject: Re: Ports (was: FreeBSD main platform & Linux) In-Reply-To: <35DF29AC.70062752@verinet.com> References: <3.0.1.32.19980821053638.0068ea4c@pop.netaddress.com> <3.0.5.32.19980822074143.007a1aa0@pop3.sprint.ca> <3.0.6.32.19980822142714.007a9a20@pop3.sprint.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 02:27 PM 8/22/98 -0600, Allen Campbell wrote: >This is the classic case of a much too overloaded term. I'll share what >I know. > >I'll start with the FreeBSD ports collection. To 'port' software is to >make it compatible with another platform. A person doing this is may be >called a porter, who is porting software. The result is sometimes >called a port. FreeBSD maintains a large and growing collection of >these ports. Using these ports, you may obtain the standard >distribution of some piece of software and allow the ports system to >automatically 'patch' and install the distribution. The handbook and >the ports man page have more information on the FreeBSD ports >collection. >The 'soft' ports you mentioned I don't recognize. Thanks a bunch Allen, I wasn't sure what those were. I knew about the software ports, and had heard about the IP ports, but didn't know how and why they were used. The term "soft ports" was my way of distiguinshing between hardware ports (Com 1 & 2, printer ports on computers) and IP ports which seem te me to be of the "software" type. Perhaps that's a mistaken understanding I have of the difference between what is hardware and software. I assumed that because IP ports are part of a software program, that I could legitimately call them soft ports, as opposed to physical ports on a computer's motherboard, though I realize that the term may not be commonly used. Regards, G.R. GAUDREAU SBG-KEY: 4002-7dc5-50c9-eb0d-b07b-7442 The opinions expressed above are my own, and do not necessarely reflect my own. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message