Problem with X11 version of GnuCash on MacOSX

[Mike Alexander]

--On October 22, 2013 11:26:33 AM +0200 Geert Janssens 
<janssens-geert at telenet.be> wrote:

> I have been pondering this for a while. I don't really like this fix
> conceptually. It's MacPorts that deviates from the X Free Desktop
> standard and I don't like it that this exception in one platform only
> results in changed code on all other platforms.
>
> A better solution would be to detect the MacPorts platform at
> configure  time, and set a proper conditional based on this, which is
> then used in  the makefile to do some MacPorts specific overrides.
> That makes it  easier for other developers to understand as well
> which particular  change is for that platform only.
>
> But while thinking this alternative approach through, I concluded
> that  it may even make the issue more complicated. So for now I have
> chosen to  elaborate the comment in the makefile a bit to clarify
> *why* the compile  time value of XDG_DATA_DIRS was added.

I didn't think I was putting in a special case for MacPorts.  Instead I 
thought of it as letting people configure a special value for the data 
directory search path for whatever reason.  If you would rather do it 
with a configure option that would be ok too (maybe better), but this 
seemed reasonable and easier.  Either way, it's essentially a configure 
option that lets you specify the directory search path.  Is that so 
unreasonable?  True, it's MacPorts that triggered the need, but it's 
not really specific to MacPorts.

Auto detecting MacPorts won't be easy since it can be installed 
anywhere.  I personally have two copies installed in different places. 
One is in the normal /opt/local directory while I also have another 
version installed elsewhere for testing.  You also need to think of 
other ways that these files might be installed in non standard 
locations.  Are you also going to put in special cases for Fink and 
Homebrew?  I happen to prefer MacPorts, but both of those have 
followers too (maybe not Fink, I haven't heard much about it recently, 
but certainly Homebrew does).  I don't know where they install this 
stuff.  Of course it's also possible for someone to install it by hand 
anywhere they want to.

        Mike