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| From: | David Dorward |
| Subject: | Re: [Lynx-dev] most current lynx for the mac? |
| Date: | Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:16:45 +0100 |
On 18 Apr 2013, at 17:45, Karen Lewellen wrote:
Fink, pkgsrc® and MirPorts, at the very least, deliver for OSX, though not necessarily binary packages.
I do not understand how that answers the question? are those options editions of lynx for the mac?
Most software written for generic UNIX-like systems is distributed by the authors as source code. Sometimes the authors distribute compiled versions as well.
Most users of the software will then get it through a package management system tailored to their operating system, and most such systems will have a default package management system. For instance, Debian and Ubuntu use dpkg wrapped with apt, while Centos, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora use RPM wrapped with yum.
The package manager is responsible for downloading and installing compiled software or downloading, compiling and installing source code packages and for installing dependancies. A build of Lynx might depend on ncurses and openssl, so if you ask your package manager to install Lynx then it will also install those packages.
The Apple App Store doesn't distribute open source software, so Mac users with an interest in running a wide collection of open source software tend to use a third party package manager.
MacPorts, MirPorts, Fink and pkgsrc are examples of third party package managers.
They will all install Lynx, but might compile it with different options or have different versions of it available.
-- David Dorward http://dorward.co.uk/
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