[SUGGEST] Reform eclipse and eclipse related ports

[Wes Peters]

On Oct 14, 2005, at 10:30 PM, Mark Linimon wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 09:15:07PM -0700, Wes Peters wrote:
>
>> I don't mind moving the eclipse ports from java to devel, but all the
>> other eclipse ports are add-ins to eclipse and should probably be
>> classified along with eclipse.
>
> [adding freebsd-java to the Cc:]
>
> For some background, there's been on-and-off discussion on -java
> about how the java category was never really a good idea.  None of
> the other languages have their own primary category.  In particular
> we've completely failed to train our users to send 'java' PRs only
> for problems with the JVMs and 'ports' PRs for things in ports/java.

Makes you wonder how much the rest of the ports system would be  
cleaned up with a 'perl' category and all those p5-something- 
something ports got tossed into that basket, doesn't it?

>> In particular, if eclipse is a 'devel' tool, I don't see how CDT
>> and phpeclipse are editors.  GEF isn't a graphics library, it's a
>> graphical emulation framework for eclipse, which is (again) a
>> development tool.
>
> Well, Eclipse is one of these 'suites' that doesn't really fit well
> in one particular category.  You could make the same argument about
> OpenOffice, opengroupware, ZendStudio, and so forth.  (These 3 are
> chosen deliberately because they're scattered in 3 different  
> categories).
>
> OpenBSD has a 'productivity' category although what it has in it is  
> more
> like our 'deskutils'.  Perhaps we should consider co-opting that name?

I don't know that 'productivity' really describes what these are.  In  
particular, I'm not sure if opengroupware adds productivity or  
subtracts it.  ;^)  Ditto for eclipse, for that matter.  A category  
name that means 'big blobs of software with lots of options' might be  
appropriate.

> (Our "deskutils" is a combination of things like calendar programs and
> individual GNOME add-ons, so it's a little bit of a mixed bag.   
> However,
> I'm not sure I can see Eclipse fitting in with those).
>
> There is also the fact to consider that at 1624 ports, devel is simply
> too huge for its own good.  Everything is in there including the
> kitchen sink.

devel is one of several categories that has grown useless; www is  
another.  It's certainly worth thinking about a category that  
actually makes sense for these large software systems like openoffice  
and eclipse.

> Even if we just went with an 'ide' category, there are still 27 ports
> that would probably fit in there.  Not a lot in my book (and I've  
> always
> been against anything that would lead us towards having hundreds of
> categories), but I could see an argument for it, even so.
>
> I'll leave the idea of completely reshuffling all the categories for
> another time, since everyone is probably tired of listening to my own
> particular views on that.
>
> mcl
>

--
            Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?
Wes Peters                                                      
wes at softweyr.com