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I'd like a working SSL subversion client for my mac please.
Of course, this is way too much to ask for. Especially if you're trying
to install it from Fink.
I hate the fact that if you want an unstable package then you have to
start compiling software. Do you have any idea what kind of bizarre and
crazy extra dependencies this gives me?
Debian doesn't do this. Since the developers had to compile the
software, and the package manager had to know what files it just
installed, well, all the information is there. There's no reason on earth
not to ship a binary version. It's like one extra command.
Now I know that 'unstable' means that the packages are just for
developers. But some packages are just never going to become stable.
That's the way of things. Some of them just move too quickly.
Take subversion for example. It releases new versions every few weeks or
so. And the fink package maintainers (god bless their cotten socks) keep
updating the packages to track. But this means, as far as I can tell,
that the package will *never* make it into stable.
In Debian this would be fine, I'd just pin it to unstable and take the
rough with the smooth. Or grab one unstable binary version and stick with
it, and tell Debian to hold that package.
You can't do that with Fink.
Fink insists on building from source for unstable releases. Which quite
frankly takes ages. It requires a whole lot of other software to be
installed. And it normally fails since the software packages have changed
something in their build process slightly since the fink developers
wrapped it.
Oh! And the only way I can figure out to get a unstable source is to CVS
update my tree. That's right, I can't actually rely on an apt-get update
alone. And to make matters worse, this is using sourceforge's CVS system
that has been know to be.... how do I put this? About as reliable as
using marmalade to cement your house together. No, I've never got this to
work. I have to manually download each extra dependancy using the web
interface and place it in the right place on my hard drive.
So here I am. I want a SSL subversion client.
The worst think of all of this is I, like many software projects, have no
idea what to do about it. I can't waltz in and tell all the people who
are doing such a thankless task that they're doing it all wrong. I can't
force them to change, and it'd be wrong of me to even try. But on the
other hand, the way to install subversion on my mac (according to the
subversion website) is to use Fink.
Any ideas on how to get around this, offlist please.
GAH.
--
#!/usr/bin/perl -T
use strict;
use warnings;
print q{Mark Fowler, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx, http://twoshortplanks.com/};
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