Flaws in the ports system?

[Benjamin Lutz]

Parv wrote:
>>I guess what's missing is an all-powerful search tool. I have some
>>ideas, maybe around christmas I find some time to write something.
>
> Can you give us a glimpse of what else is it that you think is
> missing for Dec 25 is more than 2 months away?

Sure. I use the ports' meta information for the following information
most of the time:

- Checking in which directory a port I already know exists is located,
  or how the dir name is spelt exactly in the case of version number
  suffixes and the like.

- Searching for a port by keyword, ie basically what make search does.

- Given a program name, get some information about it (ie, reading
  pkg-descr.

Depending on the information I'd like to retrieve, quite a bit of typing
is necessary, particularly in the case of slave ports. Also, the way to
get to the information in the examples mentioned above is very different
in each case.

I'd like to make all the information available in way that allows easy
and quick access, that is consistent across different kinds of queries,
and maybe I can even make the whole thing somewhat intuitive to use too ;)

Cheers
Benjamin
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