[KDE/Mac] Packaging (was Re: [rkward-users] problem installing on Mac)

[Mike Arthur]

On 10 May 2010, at 15:37, Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas wrote:

> I don't think that a upstream developer should be also responsible of 
> packaging applications for every platform/packaging system in the world.

I agree but I also think that if they want it to be as easy as possible for their users then they should package for the most popular packaging systems. That doesn't mean that they "should" but just that it's best for their users. Compiling applications and all their dependencies is not something OSX users are used to doing.

> I've ported KMid (in extragear/multimedia, current release: 2.3.0) to Mac OSX 
> and Windows, offering the same user experience on each platform as the Linux 
> version has. I think it is easy enough to compile it anywhere. Being myself a 
> Linux user, I've also published quick and dirty packages for Ubuntu and 
> openSUSE, but this is clearly a job for somebody else doing it better by 
> focusing on a single platform and packaging standard.
> 
> I'm willing to provide help, support and advice to anybody wanting to make 
> Fink/Macports packages for KMid. Volunteers?


I'm not meaning to be a prat here but it's really not that hard to create these packages yourself. It's certainly a lot easier than creating binary packages on Linux. If someone volunteers then that's great but this list doesn't generally get a lot of activity so I'm just preparing you for the possibility that you'll have to do it yourself or not get a package at all. KDE on Mac is extremely niche and there's not a lot of us doing a lot of regular work on it.

--
Cheers,
Mike Arthur
http://mikearthur.co.uk