Re: Flattened GNUstep structure?

[Helge Hess]

Dan Pascu wrote:
> On 11 Jan, Helge Hess wrote:
> > The major feature of GNUstep make is, that you can store binaries for
> > multiple platforms while NeXTstep only stored multiple binaries for a
> 
> How does this help an end user?

Easier deployment because of a single pkg instead of 10, easier
administration since you can keep all applications/bundles in a single
fileserver hierachy, ensurance that the application actually is for the
current platform.

> I see it can help a developer build for
> multiple platforms at the same time if he has the tool (cross
> compilers), but an end user will never install multiple platform
> binaries on the same partition. I mean I will not install the freebsd
> and windows binaries on my linux partition, or my linux and freebsd
> binaries when I install on the windows partition (for windows use).

In NeXTstep/OPENSTEP the installer showed you the architectures
contained in a pkg and allowed you to select the ones you require/want
to install.

As mentioned above you *will* install multi-platforms binaries if you
run a multi-platform network (more specific: you install them in
GNUSTEP_NETWORK_ROOT ;-)

> Because basically I can only run the binary for one platform on that
> exact platform.

Even this is not necessarily true (though common practice). Eg on
Windows you have multiple different 'sub-platforms'
(cygwin,mingw32,uwin,...). Also on Unix you could run 'Windows-GNUstep'
applications using WINE.

BTW: did anybody ever tried to compile GS against WINE ? Seems a much
better Win dev-environment than cygwin on NT.

> An exception to this is keeping multiple binaries for one platform and
> different backends.
> What is the use of a deep structure if in 90% of cases you end up with
> a bunch of empty dirs and one single binary hidden in one of them?

No, not on deployment media.

IMHO until now people didn't think a lot about the issue or encountered
problems, since there is no GNUstep release and you didn't have to
deploy anything yet !
Almost any GNUstep user compiles GNUstep from the sources.

If you deliver (binary) applications/bundles on a media (eg a CD),
having multi-binary pkgs is *very* valuable. Actually having
multi-platform pkgs gives you many of the benefits Java bytecode has
(without the drawbacks ;-)

Greetings
  Helge
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