[Scribus] Mac OS port

[Martin Costabel]

Kevin Walzer wrote:
[]
> The example of Gimp.app (a Mac app bundle of Gimp 2.2.x) is instructive
> here: it's become wildly popular in terms of downloads because it wraps
> all the Gimp binaries and GTK libraries into a single app bundle. Its
> only external dependency is Apple's X11 environment.

Gimp.app uses a whole bunch of dynamic libraries from Fink. It just puts 
them into the bundle and ships them with the app. Scribus.app could do 
the same, at least for the smaller libs. I agree that libqt is perhaps 
better linked statically if possible.

> One area where we'd have to tread carefully is if the Scribus build
> links to Fink libraries. That complicates matters, for several reasons.
> One, the goal should be to make Scribus as standalone/isolated as
> possible; I don't think that requiring a separate installation of Fink
> should be part of this. Also, the Fink leaders are serious about
> enforcing GPL on their packages: I was warned last year when I asked
> about making an X11 app bundle of Scribus that I'd have to carefully
> document all my steps, make all my source code available, etc. I decided
> all that was too complex for me to undertake by myself. If Fink winds up
> being part of this equation, then I just want to highlight the due
> diligence that would need to be taken.  Perhaps Martin can provide
> advice on this front.

Actually I even annoyed the guy who distributes Gimp.app until he 
provided a detailed account of his build procedure. He has such a text 
now on his web site at 
http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/gimp.app.howto.txt, and I think this is 
a good thing. It can be useful for example for a project like 
Scribus.app. That's is the idea of this part of the GPL, namely to allow 
others to learn from your work.

I don't see any conflict between Fink and a possible standalone 
Scribus.app. I could even imagine a Fink package that produces this 
standalone Scribus.app which could then be distributed from the scribus 
servers. Just because such a thing has not yet been done, doesn't mean 
it is impossible.

There is another example of a Mac app bundle made with the help of Fink: 
Nicotine.app http://nicotine-app.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl. The 
maintainer of this project (vasi) is also one of the main Fink 
developers. On that page there are even two more app bundles made in the 
same way. All these app bundles are running with X11, though.

> So, just let me know what I need to do! I can't wait!

The first and foremost point is to get this thing working.

All other questions about packaging etc are secondary. You remember that 
Ben Reed had a scribus version using Qt/Mac already some 2 years ago, 
but it never worked correctly. Maybe both Qt/Mac and scribus are now in 
a shape that makes this possible, but this has to be seen.

-- 
Martin