Re: Changes I've been thinking of...

[Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf]

Am 08.10.2009 um 12:50 schrieb Richard Frith-Macdonald:

> On 8 Oct 2009, at 10:32, David Chisnall wrote:
>
> > On 8 Oct 2009, at 07:29, Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
> >
> > > GlobalDefaults.plist does that.
> >
> > Two questions then:
> >
> > - Is this actually documented anywhere?  I see a vague reference  
> > to it in NSUserDefaults, but packagers are absolutely not going to  
> > read API docs (and should not be expected to.
>
> With the documentation for GNUstep.conf in the main base library  
> documentation (I put a link in an earlier email).
> I think you have to be realistic ... a packager *does* have to read  
> some documentation in order to package a big system like GNUstep  
> properly.
> It would undoubtedly be good to have some packager-specific  
> documentation, but obviously the target readership is a very small  
> group ....

A small but nevertheless very important group of people. Those people  
are our link to average-joe-users, who don't bother compiling stuff  
themselves. Nowadays the majority of users installs software using a  
package manager or a port system, only the most advanced users will  
still compile software "by hand". So if we want GNUstep to be used we  
have to get it into the package systems of those distros. For that to  
happen we need the help of packagers. So we should make sure that  
packaging is as easy and painless as possible. One part of this is to  
teach the packagers the basic principles about GNUstep's architecture  
so they understand how to build GNUstep without banging their heads  
against the wall first.

I already talked about this here: http://groups.google.com/group/ 
gnu.gnustep.discuss/browse_thread/thread/11c448aa294cdee9


As a first measure we should probably just link http://svn.gna.org/ 
svn/gnustep/tools/make/trunk/README.Packaging from the frontpage so  
that this information is available on our website too. That link  
should be prominently visible from the front page of our website.

Later we can create a dedicated web page for this, if it might be a  
FAQ, a wiki page or a beefed up HTML-version of README.Packaging with  
some useful links, for instance to one of the guides from http:// 
wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/User_Guides#Installing_GNUstep (why are  
there so many?) and maybe http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/ 
Dependencies remains to be discussed.


regards,

        Lars