[Ifeffit] Mac support for Demeter

[Matt Newville]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 4:00 PM, Bruce Ravel <bravel at bnl.gov> wrote:
>
> Hi gang,
>
> I just heard from Frank Schima, the fellow who kindly provided
> packaging of Demeter via MacPorts.  Frank is moving to a new position
> at NIST Boulder and will no longer be providing IT support for the
> group out there that does some XAS.  That means his availability to
> maintain and update the MacPorts package will be somewhere between
> slim and non-existent.  Here is what he said:
>
>    I am no longer working for Quantum Devices as of Friday,
>    10/31/2014. So I will no longer be involved in updating Demeter and
>    will be unsubscribing from the Ifeffit mailing list. For updates
>    please follow the Macports procedures to request an update in
>    Macports by opening a Trac ticket [1]. I may actually be able to
>    perform the update but I cannot guarantee anything.
>
>    [1] <https://trac.macports.org/newticket>
>
> I know that this support for the Mac was valued by many people in our
> community, so Frank will be missed.

Definitely!  Frank, you've contributed a huge amount of work and added
real value for many people in the XAFS community.  Thank you so much.

> I am not able to provide packaging support for Mac users.  Even if I
> had the time or energy to take on a new packaging responsibility, I
> simply don't own a Mac.
>
> This would be a good time for someone to step up and take over
> responsibility for the Mac package.  It seems that Frank has done the
> bulk of the work.  The MacPort ecosystem seems to be well supported
> and well documented, so I would think that someone else could readily
> step into that role.

I completely agree that this represents an ideal opportunity for
someone else to help out.   I know that many people, including me,
rely on this version of the software.

--Matt