Re: GNUstep installation - a 'Newbie' question

[Martin Brecher]

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Chris B. Vetter wrote:
|
|>I imagine being a recommendation on the GNUstep site, telling me which
|>distro has been tested and is easy to install from scratch.
|
|
| I don't think that's a good idea, as people ususally have a certain
| preference. Instead, it would be better to collect user experiences with
| different Operating Systems slash Distribution.

I would suggest using wiki.gnustep.org for that.
On www.gnustep.org there is already a document
<http://www.gnustep.org/information/machines_toc.html> which describes
some problems and workarounds with different systems/distributions. The
problem is that it's pretty outdated.
Maybe part of this document could be put on the wiki or at least link to
a related page on the wiki where uses can add their problems and the
corresponding workarounds.

Additionally, Dennis' Build Guide as a very good job in guiding the user
through the necessary steps of checking his system and installing
GNUstep on it. The GNUstep site should put more emphasis on the build
guide. The current link can be easily missed by a new user.

[...]

|
|>I further imagine doing an apt-get (or some other package manager)
|>that installs GNUstep *including all the dependent libraries*, plus a
|>suitable window manager *from sources* (! so we are architecture
|>independent).
|

Apart from the fact that it is relatively easy to compile GNUstep apps
yourself, I can imagine a gnustep-specific distribution system based on
lspm (the Linuxstep package manager) for everything except the base
libraries. I.e. lspm either gets the fitting binary for your system or
downloads the source and compiles everything for you. Without the
dependency on the os/distribution suppliers.

[...]

|
|>Until then, I am still lurking and working from over the fence (on OS
|>X). I think it is time to make GS more approachable and grow the
|>developer base.
|
|
| Yes, but to morph GNUstep into a "eierlegende Wollmilchsau" (for you
| non-native German speakers, that's a legendary animal in German
| mythology ;-) may not be the way to go.

But I guess everybody knows emacs ;-)

|
| What about offering precompiled binaries of all necessary libs and make
| them available for download?
|
| Or, maybe even better, what about including all necessary libs 'inside'
| GNUstep's source tree and have them compile and link during install? At
| least that would assure that all required libs are available and
| installed...
|

See lspm suggestion above.

Greetings,
Martin
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