faq.php: some definitions: begin improvements

[grahamperrin]

A tentative, fairly major rewrite of much of this section.

[grahamperrin]

Draft. Some of this might be contentious.

For what it's worth, I think that we need to reshape and reframe existing text before attempting to weave in:

• FAQ: expand the definition of a package #609

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Postscript (notes to self):

• en dash laziness, need to code these

[grahamperrin]

Oops, I forgot to reinsert the part that was originally:

After installing, ports are identical to packages.

It's an important point, however:

• I wouldn't use the word identical (because you emphasised the value of compile-time options, for a custom-built port to result in a package that will differ from a Project-provided package)

I lean towards mentioning pkg(8), however:

• the longer that this section https://www.freshports.org/faq.php#definitions becomes, the less likely that the section will suit the "hopelessly lazy".

In my mind, lazy nearly always includes:

1. disinclination to click a link
2. a naturally short attention span when begin to attempt to digest what was linked.

[dlangille]

"Some ports have default configuration options. During the build process, you can set these various options."

There's a mix of plural and singular.

[grahamperrin]

Thanks. I was also not particularly happy with the mixture. I'm vaguely trying to convey:

• some ports have no more than one option
• wherever there's an option, there's the maintainer-set default (true?)

– as succinctly as possible.

[grahamperrin]

Reminding myself (an example):

• https://www.freshports.org/editors/ghostwriter/#config config anchor for Configuration options
• https://www.freshports.org/editors/ghostwriter/#options options anchor for Options name.

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Options … configuration options … build options … compile-time options …

On one hand, I quite like the phrase build options.

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On the other hand, let's compare with something on the poudriere side.

poudriere-options(8)

poudriere options – configure the options for a given port

[dlangille]

This section contains a highly simplified overview of ports and packages. We have glossed over many details. More experienced users may feel compelled to point out misleading or incorrect points. Instead, they should submit patches whilst keeping the first sentence in mind.

[grahamperrin]

I'm happy with a fair amount of glossing-over, because:

• Definitions for the hopelessly lazy is a light-hearted heading
• we plead with the reader to be familiar with the ports-related chapter of the FreeBSD Handbook
• the Foundation's blog post concludes with a link to the same chapter
• the last part of the chapter has "Fix it!" as point 3 of 4.