How should eclipse be organized in the ports tree?

[Vizion]

On Tuesday 30 August 2005 16:15,  the author Vizion contributed to the 
dialogue on-
 Re: How should eclipse be organized in the ports tree?: 

>On Tuesday 30 August 2005 14:23,  the author Mark Linimon contributed to the
>dialogue on-
> Re: Eclipse as part of the ports/java tree? [Was freebsd eclipse plugins &
>mailing list]:
>BTW I have switched subject to the thread for the freebsd-eclipse maillist
> and cc'd  you and Herve. I want to respect those who are on the official
> freebsd-eclipse mailing list. I could also cc the text to freebsd-java if
> you want.
>
>>On Tue, Aug 30, 2005 at 10:10:26AM -0700, Vizion wrote:
>>> I am now faced with the question is the ports tree as inflexible as some
>>> people suggest or are some members of our meritocracy more inflexible
>>> than the freebsd assets?
>>
>>This is a complete oversimplification of the situation.
>>
>>There are some hard-coded assumptions in the ports tree -- one of which is
>>that there are two levels, categories and ports -- and these assumptions
>>are mirrored in the repositories of tens of thousands if not hundreds of
>>thousands of users, and thousands of lines of shell scripts and database
>>programs that create the binary packages and monitor the results of those
>>build processes.
>>
>>So when you suggest that the only way that Eclipse can be supported is
>>to have a multilevel ports tree -- as you are seeming to -- you are clearly
>>totally misunderestimating the amount of effort involved.
>>
>>In your most recent email I think you are finally getting a lot closer to
>>what I consider 'real' problem.  IMHO the interesting problems you want to
>>solve are the 'search' and 'browse' problems.  Directory names controlled
>>by CVS structures in an unbranched tree, which are then mirrored all around
>>the world, are really poor paradigms for these problems.  Herve has
>>suggested some better tools for these which are better ways to think
>>about these problems and you should look at those.  We certainly need more.
>>
>>The meta-plugin idea is also worth considering.
>>
>>But restructuring the entire tree, even to add a few hundred ports, is
>>simply not feasible with the level of volunteer effort we have and the
>>number of people that depend on the current structure worldwide.
>>
>>mcl
>
>Ok - building on your comments would my original suggestion, as modified
>below, and leaving aside for one moment the arguments as to whether or not
>committers might desire it,be capable of implementation without a
>restructuring of code?
>
>This proposal mean that /usr/ports/plugins/*.jar is a repository for files
>which are accessed solely via the meta-eclipsevx.xxx ports.
>
>I think this might shoehorn the necessary structure into the existing
> system. What do you think?
>
>/usr/ports/eclipse/eclipsemainv[x.xxx]     Holds the main eclipse ports
>/usr/ports/eclipse/meta-eclipse[v.xxx]     Holds eclipse plugins loader
Just for sake of clarity the above are intended to be straight forward ports

>/usr/ports/eclipse/plugins/                        Holds the *.jar files

>/usr/ports/eclipse/misc1                          self contained eclipse 
ports 
> /usr/ports/eclipse/misc2 
>/usr/ports/eclipse/miscN
>
>/usr/ports/eclipse/plugins would, in effect, be a set of files which would
> be downloaded under control of the meta-eclipse  loader
>
> If so why not use it - that would make eclipse a category which could
> enclose a number of ports for eclipse versions, a number
>of   /usr/ports/eclipse/meta_eclipseplugin ports  and each plugin would then
>(in  effect) be a *.jar file file held within the /usr/eclipse/plugins
>directory.
>The meta_eclipse plugin could build the library of available plugins on the
>fly and use the standard system for registering the plugins on the local
>machine. In that way could the need be integrated into the existing system?
>
>Whatis your reaction?
>
>david

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