From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 19 14:33:58 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5110416A4CE for ; Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:33:58 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp03.mrf.mail.rcn.net (smtp03.mrf.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.62]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 22E4F43D4C for ; Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:33:58 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from 209-6-197-67.c3-0.smr-ubr1.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com ([209.6.197.67] helo=jerusalem.litteratus.org.litteratus.org) by smtp03.mrf.mail.rcn.net with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #7) id 1BbguF-00029h-00 for questions@freebsd.org; Sat, 19 Jun 2004 10:33:19 -0400 From: Robert Huff MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <16596.20143.85759.224274@jerusalem.litteratus.org> Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 10:33:19 -0400 To: questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <40D40027.1040009@vo.lu> References: <40D336A0.5020803@vo.lu> <20040618203516.GA75213@gothmog.gr> <40D40027.1040009@vo.lu> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta16) "celeriac" XEmacs Lucid Subject: Re: any use to build from source? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:33:58 -0000 Patrick Useldinger writes: > True for the CDs. But once you want to upgrade, things get more > complicated. For example, I did not find a package for OpenOffice > 1.1.1 in the "offical" places, although OO is certainly an > excellent candidate for a package. If you have not found in unofficial places, try here: http://projects.imp.ch/openoffice/ > This led me to the conclusion that packages, in the FBSD world, > are considered less important than the very well maintained > ports. I do not know if it is official policy, but it is de facto true for one reason. It is much easier to go from the port to the package than vice versa. > I agree with that argument, you can tailor the compilation. But > it's probably not systematical, but rather the exception. You might be surprised. With the ability to tailor things by variables fed to make (which can be made the default by inclusion in pkg_tools.conf), quite a few people (raises hand) are doing at least some of this. > I do not agree with an earlier argument, which was that you could > change the source. I have been programming for 25 years now, I am > certain that you don't change code, not even in a reasonably > sized project, without spending a large amount of time. But if the programmer and/or port maintainer do all the work for you? Robert Huff