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== Welcome to !HaikuPorts ==

!BePorts is a centralized collection of software ported to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS BeOS] platform. Each port contains the BeOS-specific patches to the original source code. Along with a [SubversionRepository Subversion repository] to store all patches, this Trac site eases cooperation on porting efforts. There is also a [MailingList mailing list] for the discussion of the project. The BePorter tool is provided to ease the fetching, patching and building of source code.

== Objective ==

The main objective of the !BePorts project is to centralize ports of software to the BeOS platform. This avoids reinvention of the wheel when the person that ported an older version of a software package didn't provide a patch and seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth.

More importantly, solutions to problems faced when porting one application may be valuable when porting another. For this purpose, the PortLog, Trac tickets and the CommonProblems page can be consulted when facing problems. To make this work, some [wiki:Guidelines] should be followed.

BePorter can be compared to a slim version of [http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml Gentoo Portage]. It fetches the original source code, applies the BeOS-specific patches, builds, and optionally installs the port. This package management aspect, however, is by no means the essence of the !BePorts project.

== Platforms ==

[[TOC(heading=Useful pages, depth=0, SubversionRepository, MailingList, Guidelines, PortingTips, CommonProblems, PortLog, Installation, JoinBePorts, AddingPorts, BePorter, ToDo)]]

Unfortunately there are a couple BeOS platforms: R5, BONE, Dano, Zeta and [http://haiku-os.org/ Haiku]. A BePort should ideally build on all of these. While the older platforms are still of importance now, focus will eventually shift to Haiku as it matures.

== Getting Started ==

To install the !BePorts system on your BeOS installation, see [wiki:Installation].

For information on how to add a BePort to the tree, see AddingPorts. Don't forget to read the [wiki:Guidelines]! Milestone [milestone:"BePorts M1" M1] lists a set of the most common/important software packages. It is recommended (recent versions of) these are ported first.