RE: [Axiom-developer] differences wh-sandbox andbuild-improvements

[Bill Page]

On April 18, 2007 6:00 AM Waldek Hebisch wrote:
> 
> Bill Page wrote:
> > Why not? It is not necessary to build gcl as part of the Axiom
> > build - just install the windows binary for gcl, like other
> > users Windows do.
> >
> 
> Is there a binary version of gcl suitable for Axiom developement?
> The latest binary I see is 2.6.6, but AFAIK with 2.6.6 we are
> getting errors which vanish if we use 2.6.7 or 2.6.8.

You are right and what I wrote above is wrong. Gaby also has
pointed out that it is not currently realistic to depend on the
GCL binaries on Windows for Axiom development.

As far as I can tell no one has posted any binaries for GCL on
windows newer than

  gcl_2.6.6.mingw32_cltl1_japi_20050210.exe 22-Mar-2005

at

  http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcl/binaries/stable

And gcl-2.6.8pre is still a "pre-release". I guess the gcl
project is also critally lacking in resources. If it would be
helpful I could certainly upload a windows binary of this
pre-release to the Axiom Wiki web site. But I am discouraged
also by Gaby's observation that there does not seem to be much
interest in development of the Windows versions of GCL or
Axiom. :-(

> 
> Also, can one install gcl without affecting existing Mingw
> installation (the gcl readme claims that on Windows gcl
> need a specific, rather old Mingw version -- for me
> downgrading Mingw is not an option)?
> 

MinGW is required in order to compile Lisp to object code and
of course to compile the Lisp output of the SPAD compiler in
Axiom. Unlike Linux, it is not correct to assume that a C
compiler is available in the basic window installation. The
existing binary installer that I prepared for Axiom on Windows
includes the necessary parts of MinGW to permit GCL and Axiom
to compile object code. I think a similar binary installer
for GCL should include these same parts of MinGW so that the
GCL installation will be complete and fully functional.

Regards,
Bill Page.