This is just a short heads-up about the "bl3ify" commits that are
hitting pkgsrc.  "bl3ify" is my shorthand for "converting a package
to use the buildlink3 framework".  In practice, packages that have
been bl3ified will build almost exactly like buildlink2 packages,
but with more advanced wrapper scripts and slight differences in
how system/pkgsrc software clashes are handled.

The plan of attack for buildlink3 is to really get buildlink3
well-tested and integrated into pkgsrc (meaning we convert packages
to use buildlink3) for the next pkgsrc release.  We don't have to
convert every package, but we should be confident that buildlink3 is
a superior replacement for buildlink2 and that eventually every
package should be made to use it.  It should be clear that the
framework is clean and works well on non-NetBSD OSes, too.  For the
Solaris folks out there, buildlink3 has some new goodies to make the
Sun toolchain look more GNUish and will hopefully reduce the amount
of patching needed to get things to work with the Sun compiler.

You'll note that I'm not mentioning pkgviews, although it's clearly
the elephant in the middle of the room in any buildlink3 discussion.
We'll get to it eventually, but for now, buildlink3 is a big step in
that direction.

Currently, I'm finishing up my backlog of commits of bl3'ed packages
in my local pkgsrc.  I would certainly like for other developers to
work on this, too, and I'll sketch out in some detail how to bl3ify
packages in the next few days.  I have a few more key packages that
I'm going to work on myself before I open the doors and let everyone
else join in the fun.  Then, as my CTY counselers used to say, it's
time for mandatory fun :)

	Cheers,

	-- Johnny Lam <jlam@NetBSD.org>