Re: [gentoo-osx] New document: Project targets

["Dirk Schönberger" <dirk.schoenberger@sz-online.de>]

> To be honest, I don't really care about the name, but I don't feel like
> having huge discussions about it either.  We just chose something more
> sexy than /sw.  Besides that, having chosen a default, doesn't mean you
> need to use it.  We could name it like
> /Library/GentooPortageInstalledPackages, but that really looks ugly in
> your paths.  Luckly there is shell completion, but it still is a bit too
> ugly to me.
> Finally, this is just a minor side issue, that I feel is completely
> irrelevant regarding the state of the project.

Sorry to be obnoxious, but I think the topic is rather relevant, at least
IMHO.
Basically you (Gentoo for OSX) have the problem, that you have to work on a
system
which is not really prepared to work with a system like Gentoo.

The MacOSX file system hierarchy is a mix of two subsystems.

First there is its Unix heritage, i.e. the /usr, /dev, /etc, /var hierarchy,
Second there is more modern "MacOS usability system" (for lack of better
words).
The second system has whole other assumptions about what is in a systerm.
Basically you have a set of applications
(as app folders), in the /Applications folder, and components which play a
support role to these applications, namely the
/Libary, ~/Library, /System/Library hierarchy.

Additionally at least the Mac default system is implemented so that the Unix
hierarchy is hidden, i.e. not visible from the GUI system
(finder)

Conceptionally Gentoo belongs more to the Unix hierarchy, basically it tries
to supplant a the static Mac Unix subsystem by a more dynamic,
package managed system. Most (or at least currently all) of these packages
are not suitable to a GUI system.

So they should not be part of the second file system items.

I think Gentoo should at least try to be a correct citizen on a Mac system,
this includes it should honour the system assumptions.

Regards
Dirk




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