Re: [avr-chat] Can't Install avr-gcc in FreeBSD

[Brian Dean]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2007 at 04:09:59PM +0200, David Brown wrote:

> Perhaps because it's easier to download winavr than get avr-gcc working 
> on FreeBSD?

Surely you're joking Mr. Brown?

What could be easier than 'cd /usr/ports/devel/avr-libc && make install'?

As Joerg mentioned, the doc breakage was merely temporary.

> Secondly, although decent Linux distros (and FreeBSD) make it
> extremely easy to get hold of and install a wide range of software,
> this only applies to "standard" software for which someone is acting
> as a maintainer.  When you want to install or upgrade any of the
> tens of thousands of packages in the Debian archives, it is vastly
> easier than in the Windows world.  But when you step outside of
> that, you enter the world of dependency resolution, patching,
> ./configure, and make, instead of an InstallShield wizard.

I disagree with your assertion because you generally only need to step
outside of the port/rpm maintainer world when you need to do something
very special to your situation.  The InstallShield world never even
gives you the opportunity to do that, so of course you can't get
yourself into trouble.  But by the other edge of the sword, you do not
have the flexibility to handle the special situation should you need
to.

For example, Joerg recently sent me some patches for flex and byacc
that do something very specific that I'm interested in.  I can just
download the source, apply the patches, build it and have fun.  What
would I do if I lived in the InstallShield universe?

I use both FreeBSD and MacOS X.  The FreeBSD ports system is top shelf
stuff, IMO.  MacOS X has a system called MacPorts, formerly called
DarwinPorts.  This is also a very nice system which is roughly
equivalent to a somewhat refined FreeBSD ports.  I always use the
"ports" unless I need to do something special like the patches from
Joerg above.  It's a rare case that I need to go outside the usual
ports systems but having that capability, to me, is essential to my
being. :-)

Cheers,
-Brian
-- 
Brian Dean
BDMICRO LLC
http://www.bdmicro.com/
ATmega128 based MAVRIC controllers