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HEADS UP: gettext port update on FreeBSD
Dan writes "FreeBSD's Joe Marcus Clarke has committed an update to the gettext port to 0.12.1 on FreeBSD. GNU `gettext' is an important step for the GNU Translation Project, as it is an asset on which we may build many other steps. This package offers to programmers, translators, and even users, a well integrated set of tools and documentation. Specifically, the GNU `gettext' utilities are a set of tools that provides a framework to help other GNU packages produce multi-lingual messages."
I don't get it. Why is this an important step ? What did FreeBSD have before this ? Has it been _that_ long since a BSD story on slashdot , so someone just throws out the latest mail from one of the mailing lists ?
It is _recommended_ people install sysutils/portupgrade then do:
portupgrade -rf gettext -m BATCH=yes
to upgrade gettext and all of the ports that depend on it. However, if
you use portupgrade to preserve old shared libraries (i.e. you do not
run portupgrade -u), then you do not _have_ to do the full recursive
update. However, you may run into problems later on if you hold off on
doing this.
Gettext is an important piece of software. So are the 137 other projects by GNU including GCC. Each project sees many minor version releases and many major number releases. Each project is used for many operating systems.
I kind of understood the importance of GCC 3.0. This article however completely fails to explain why one particular project's one particular minor number on one particular OS stands out of the million or so permutations of these.
Original poster please enlighten us.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
1) neither the article nor the story tell you why you should upgrade, or care at all for that matter. I actually downloaded gettext, looked at the changelog; a very cursory glance makes it seem to be build and packaging changes, and a couple new platforms.
2) gettext() works by you sending it a message, usually english, and it returning that phrase translated to your natural language. If it can't find one, it returns the original text. Since the text is usually english, and I is uh nativ English speeker, this doesn't seem that critical for me.
Comments?
There are 9000 ports in the FreeBSD ports system. Why post an article on gettext? Why not post articles on p5-X11-IdleTime 0.01 (8/25/2003 10:49)? At least it's a NEW port, not not just a minor release of something that's been in the ports tree for years.
It isn't just because it's a slow news day. There was an announcement this morning that Sun FINALLY approved the distribution of Java binaries for FreeBSD.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
It's relevance to FreeBSD seems minor, however, I counted four capitalised "gnu"s. Is this some sort of subliminal gnucampaign?
The package system should be "stable". See what RedHat or Debian do. Once the distribution has been released, all packages that come with it are -frozen- too. They even usually merge the security updates and bug fixes by patching the same versions of packages that were originally released with the distribution instead of bumping their versions. This way there is less impact on the users. It is rarely required to update anything else when something like gettext update is released (because if they do release an update, it's going to be the idential version with minor patches applied)
Hmmmm.... I don't know dude. I run Windows (all of them) and FreeBSD and OpenBSD and I've never experienced problems with the BSDs like you're describing. Honestly, I run my internet gateway (which serves as the router, nat, dhcp, dns, and stateful firewall) on OpenBSD with a Pentium 133 and 96 megs of ram and it's a champ. Maybe it's just poorly configured or there might be a hardware problem? Not sure what else to tell you other than that, but I've always had great experiences with BSD.