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I was a macports user but had to switch to homebrew because most new projects went there and it was generally easier to write Formulars etc. But I never really

I was a macports user but had to switch to homebrew because most new projects went there and it was generally easier to write Formulars etc. But I never really liked the project. I think writing a new package manager on top of brew infrastructure won‘t create a better setup. I don‘t know if all casks and Formulars only use the DSL stanzas or if still some use custom ruby functions and helpers. Because otherwise this new tool might need to eval ruby scripts for backwards compatibility.

skydhash 1y ago
I loved macports, mostly because I wanted to create a new user account for a project and got bitten with the permissions thing by homebrew. I don’t mind typing sudo.
fastball 1y ago
Why didn't you like the project if it was a better project by most definitions of what makes a good package manager? e.g. what did you want from a package manager besides 1. easy to install packages 2. readily updated packages.
- larusso 1y ago
  macports had the cleaner packages. Macports created its own base library so that packages are not based on the macOS system libraries which managed to break them when doing system updates with brew or when you decided to stay longer on an older macOS version. That meant that packages from macports took longer to install and compile. That was from the time when bottles where not a thing yet. Brew was fast but unstable. In my opinion the inferior project won. But to brews defence they also addressed the issues over the years. Don‘t have any sources at hand but I remember a time when the brew project compared itself to macports and pointed out that their faster because they don‘t recompile all base libraries etc etc. And they had to realize that this wasn‘t a great idea. Now packages are practically split between different os versions. And different bottles are served depending which macOS version you run. Edit: And I got reminded that it was possible to run and install packages for and from multiple users. Brew took over /usr/local/bin and other /usr/local/homebrew for the running user. Managing a system with multiple users with brew was and still is hard. With macports you needed sudo like with most other package managers. The sudo less nature was a huge deal for its adoption. And now maybe a security risk if you ask me.
  - pasc1878 1y ago
    macports eventually got an infrastructure that allowed binaries to be downloaded so no need for compilation on your local machine. SO the speed issue went away but too late as Hom,ebrew had gained the mind share
- sofixa 1y ago
  > 1. easy to install packages 2. readily updated packages. Not OP, but I want my package manager to have good UX around package installs and updates, not it deciding to update a Python major version because a random small thing I'm installing it requests it.
- dur-randir 1y ago
  Their maintainers have a rather dubious anti-user history with opt-out analytics and forced auto updates to said analytics.
tannhaeuser 1y ago
Any idea what's up with MacPorts lately? Packages I needed to install were uncharacteristically broken or out of date which wasn't a thing ever since I switched from Fink ages ago. Apple used to use MacPorts internally and put resources into but they stopped doing so?
- larusso 1y ago
  Didn‘t use it for quite some time now. I actually switched to nix packages for a while and was happy. Even worked in tandem with brew but I had a glibc issue on my shared Linux setup I could not resolve. I‘m still on nixos on Linux and tested nix on macOS again with flakes. I‘m not there yet to fully commit though.

skydhash 1y ago

I loved macports, mostly because I wanted to create a new user account for a project and got bitten with the permissions thing by homebrew. I don’t mind typing sudo.

fastball 1y ago

Why didn't you like the project if it was a better project by most definitions of what makes a good package manager? e.g. what did you want from a package manager besides 1. easy to install packages 2. readily updated packages.

larusso 1y ago
macports had the cleaner packages. Macports created its own base library so that packages are not based on the macOS system libraries which managed to break them when doing system updates with brew or when you decided to stay longer on an older macOS version. That meant that packages from macports took longer to install and compile. That was from the time when bottles where not a thing yet. Brew was fast but unstable. In my opinion the inferior project won. But to brews defence they also addressed the issues over the years. Don‘t have any sources at hand but I remember a time when the brew project compared itself to macports and pointed out that their faster because they don‘t recompile all base libraries etc etc. And they had to realize that this wasn‘t a great idea. Now packages are practically split between different os versions. And different bottles are served depending which macOS version you run. Edit: And I got reminded that it was possible to run and install packages for and from multiple users. Brew took over /usr/local/bin and other /usr/local/homebrew for the running user. Managing a system with multiple users with brew was and still is hard. With macports you needed sudo like with most other package managers. The sudo less nature was a huge deal for its adoption. And now maybe a security risk if you ask me.
- pasc1878 1y ago
  macports eventually got an infrastructure that allowed binaries to be downloaded so no need for compilation on your local machine. SO the speed issue went away but too late as Hom,ebrew had gained the mind share
sofixa 1y ago
> 1. easy to install packages 2. readily updated packages. Not OP, but I want my package manager to have good UX around package installs and updates, not it deciding to update a Python major version because a random small thing I'm installing it requests it.
dur-randir 1y ago
Their maintainers have a rather dubious anti-user history with opt-out analytics and forced auto updates to said analytics.

tannhaeuser 1y ago

Any idea what's up with MacPorts lately? Packages I needed to install were uncharacteristically broken or out of date which wasn't a thing ever since I switched from Fink ages ago. Apple used to use MacPorts internally and put resources into but they stopped doing so?

larusso 1y ago
Didn‘t use it for quite some time now. I actually switched to nix packages for a while and was happy. Even worked in tandem with brew but I had a glibc issue on my shared Linux setup I could not resolve. I‘m still on nixos on Linux and tested nix on macOS again with flakes. I‘m not there yet to fully commit though.