ports structure and improvement suggestions

[Hans Lambermont]

Frank Laszlo wrote:

> FYI, I am currently working on some OPTIONS enhancements including
> submenu's, radio dialogs, and things of this nature. Also fixing a few
> inherent problems with the way OPTIONS are handled as I go. I'll
> report back when I have something final.

AFAIK the ports tree is in the process of moving away from 'WITH' knobs
to 'OPTIONS' interactive dialog screens.

Yet I see lots of proposals to enhance the 'WITH' knobs, typically in
one location (make.conf with .CURDIR if's, or pkgtools.conf with the
MAKE_ARGS section).

This doesn't make sense to me. Personally I prefer all configuration
stuff to be in one location, and vi-editable, but I also like the easy
UI of OPTIONS. I think we should have both, which implies a change in
the way 'OPTIONS' are stored. What do the 'OPTIONS'-powers-that-be think
of this ?

regards,
   Hans Lambermont

ps.
I also have ideas on pre/post install scripts, build and runtime
dependency trees, module backout handling, etc. But I'll leave that for
another time, let's first get the 'WITH'/'OPTIONS' future path clear :-)

-- 
Oh, and let's put csup and portmaster in the base system.