Re: macOS 64-bit

[Werner LEMBERG]

>>> One option for build LilyPond for 64-bit macOS is Homebrew.
>>> Building LilyPond with Homebrew has been met with partial success,
>>> but it is unclear whether the ongoing work to make that method
>>> production ready would be worth the effort.  My full comments
>>> about working on Homebrew are at the bottom of this email.
>> 
>> I suggest to drop Homebrew in favour of MacPorts.  On first sight
>> Homebrew is much more `shiny', certainly appealing young, dynamic
>> users.  However, its decision to only support a very small set of
>> features and macOS releases makes it very `apple-y' in a bad sense
>> IMHO.
> 
> I think this is poor advice.  IMHO MacPorts is very hard to work
> with (as an end user) compared to Homebrew, and I haven't seen
> anyone using MacPorts on their Mac in well over a decade.

Given that MacPorts supports more packages than Homebrew this is a
very bold statement.  And all users that don't use the two latest
releases of MacOS (like me) are out of the game, too.

[Note that I'm not a MacOS user at all.  For daily work I'm
 exclusively using GNU/Linux.  It's just that I'm interested in
 providing support even on exotic platforms :-)]

> For myself, I hate MacPorts so much that if LilyPond came to require
> MacPorts, [...]

Just wondering: What's the reason for this?

> I just don't want MacPorts anywhere near my computer, and I hope I
> will not be forced to use it in order to continue to use LilyPond on
> my Mac.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding.  Nobody is *forced* to use
MacPorts!  LilyPond doesn't depend on it.  Homebrew itself doesn't
contain lilypond-dev; you rather have to use a private cask instead,
for example

  
https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask-versions/blob/master/Casks/lilypond-dev.rb

> [...] I could probably put some effort into getting a Travis Mac
> build environment set up (though I don't expect to have much free
> time before July).  I've used Travis on many projects in the past
> and I'm reasonably familiar with it.

It would be really great if you can assist in providing a 64bit Mac
binary that doesn't violate any licences, and we are more than happy
if you have success.


    Werner