I use macports but I am not happy about having to install full blown XCode in order to install macports in order to install (insert trivial, minor package here).
Has this changed ?
I am basing this on my experience of both Snow Leopard and Mavericks ... and in those cases, I had to download and install XCode. Further, this is (I suppose) more a criticism of OSX and how it does not include basic tools ...
xcode-select --install on the CLI has been available since Mavericks (I think) and will install the CLI build tools without need to install the multi-gigabyte Xcode. I don't personally use macports, but that command should pretty much solve your issue.
I don't consider installing Xcode to be an unreasonable thing to do to - consider that 70+% of the people who buy a mac have no need for the compilers or system libraries. So it doesn't seem unreasonable to me - I mean, my debian box doesn't come with any of the devtools installed - and its a couple gigs of software to install.
Has this changed ?
I am basing this on my experience of both Snow Leopard and Mavericks ... and in those cases, I had to download and install XCode. Further, this is (I suppose) more a criticism of OSX and how it does not include basic tools ...