Homebrew-cask: Flutter support

[FrenchBen]

I like brew, and I like the simplicity that it brings when installing something.
Flutter seems that a few PR have been opened in the past:
https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/pulls?q=is%3Apr+flutter

Most with comments around this needing to be a core formula or cask one.

As noted by @cweagans https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/pull/72679#issuecomment-568140066 building flutter from source is actually quite difficult, and probably why the provide it as a pre-built binary. Flutter does come with a few packages, that are hard dependencies.

I created a quick formula to discuss how this should be approached:
https://gist.github.com/FrenchBen/327668a077c38efc1aed2849ce54d537

If a PR to cask is desirable, then I can do so, but would like to prevent repeating the back and forth previously seen 😅

[cweagans]

Very in favor of this. The "standard" way for Flutter developers to install Flutter is to install from a pre-built binary, regardless of what the Homebrew standards are. Because it's not possible to install Flutter through Homebrew, I had to do this hacky nonsense: https://github.com/cweagans/dotfiles/blob/master/.config/yadm/scripts/flutter.sh

[vitorgalvao]

core formula or cask one.

They’re not two different types of formulae. One is a formula, the other is a cask. They’re named differently because they are built differently and have different capabilities.

I created a quick formula to discuss how this should be approached

Then you need to submit it to Homebrew/core, not here.

If a PR to cask is desirable

You can’t make that a PR to this repo because that’s a formula, not a cask, and this repo only accepts casks. See alfred as an example. It’s a different thing.

CLI-only open-source tools need to be submitted first to Homebrew/core as formula, which is what you have. You may return here if not accepted (linking back to the pull request where it was refused), but you’ll need to build a cask instead.

This policy is documented in faq/rejected_casks:

The app is both open-source and CLI-only (i.e. it only uses the binary artifact). In that case, and in the spirit of deduplication, submit it first to Homebrew/core as a formula that builds from source. If it is rejected, you may then try again as a cask (link us to the issue so we can see the discussion and reasoning for rejection).

From previous refusals, it seems like Flutter is ready to be submitted as a cask, but that’s not what you built.

[cweagans]

@vitorgalvao that's a very different answer than what you said here: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/pull/72679#issuecomment-554409386

Just want to clarify: if a proper Cask was submitted, would you accept it?

[vitorgalvao]

Just want to clarify: if a proper Cask was submitted, would you accept it?

From https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/46727#discussion_r347691305:

it isn’t true that this can’t be built from source. Or it is true, that point hasn’t been made with a justification.

Once we establish that with proper justification, we can discuss the cask.

[FrenchBen]

@vitorgalvao since the binary is included, and not built, I believe it's been previously denied in core, thus a cask makes more sense.
If we agree on the above, can I open a Cask PR for review?

[vitorgalvao]

since the binary is included, and not built

The fact that they provide a binary does not prove that it can’t be built (without considerable effort). Were that the case, we wouldn’t need the deduplication rule, because any binary submitted as a cask would be accepted outright.

That’s not uncommon. And when those are included as casks, there tends to be sufficient justification that it needs to be a cask and not a formula.

[FrenchBen]

without considerable effort

This is the main point - It's easy to consume, yet quite difficult to build.

And when those are included as casks, there tends to be sufficient justification that it needs to be a cask and not a formula.

Is this the justification needed to get a PR pushed through within this Cask repo?

[vitorgalvao]

Go ahead, submit the cask.

[FrenchBen]

Cask seems to have less install options, making it difficult to install binaries that require additional resources. For the time being I defaulted to a user tap:
https://github.com/FrenchBen/homebrew-repo