RE: Axiom & internal/external GCL (was: Re: [Axiom-developer]Axiomcvs 040624 build error)

[Bill Page]

On Monday, June 28, 2004 8:59 AM Juergen Weiss wrote:
> 
> I think, we should unbundle gcl and other additional
> software. To get Axiom running and some gcl interactions 
> resolved, it was certainly ok to pack everything together in 
> the beginning. But these problems should be solved now. Most 
> package systems (debian, BSDs etc) expect that the lisp 
> system and other packages are separate. Besides it will
> make Axiom much easier to port to other platforms. The
> technical details of loading C code have already been
> adressed in Camm's mails. 

I agree with this. It is normal practice for complex systems
like Axiom to specify dependencies. After all, GCL depends
intimately on GCC and binutils but we do not include a copy
of these in the Axiom installation. What is needed is simply
to document the known dependencies and to modify the Axiom
build to make patching GCL (and noweb) unnecessary.

Regarding ports to other systems, we are already doing this
in the case of the port to Windows.

Regards,
Bill Page.