Re: GNUSTEP/linux

[Dennis Leeuw]

"Philippe C.D.Robert" wrote:
> 
> On Wednesday, February 5, 2003, at 11:52  Uhr, Alexey I. Froloff wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 11:19:04AM +0100, Philippe C.D. Robert wrote:
> >> One way out of this would be to provide a set of src rpms wich
> >> are built upon installation via an installation script. But
> >> actually, this is not what I'd call user friendly.
> > I think best way is to provide GNUstep RPMs for different
> > GNU/Linux distributions. And maybe for different versions of
> > them... In this way user can download binary RPMs for _his_
> > version of _his_ distribution and just say "rpm -U ..." ;-)
> 
> OK, here is what I intend to do:
> 
> Using RPMs or packages or whatever for the GNUstep core stuff seems to
> be the best way of installing GNUstep itself. This requires some effort
> as many different platforms have to be supported, but it can be done.

I'll had to think about it, but what might be the right solution, is the
thing I am currently trying to do with the Build Guide. Create a sort of
preflight script that detects if everything that is needed is ready for
the binaries (meaning gnustep-core). Then core can be installed like a
simple tar.gz which works on every Un*x like system. Now the bootstrap
is present, the installer can be an objective-c app or tool, which in
fact can be LSPM, and you can install every GNUstep app you want.


> The last real issue is IMHO - as discussed in a separate thread - the
> GNUstep.sh file. This is really a problem as for "users" it is not easy
> or maybe even not possible to modify say /etc/profile, hence we have to
> find a good solution here, the sooner the better!

Correct. That's why I suggested using openapp and opentool as the main
interfaces to GNUstep, for the CLI. GUI should always have GWorkspace as
the interface to the system.

> Now to install a complete desktop we can provide some simple scripts
> which perform all the required steps so that the user only has to
> execute 1 command.
> 
> Another issue will be a xdm replacement or theme for GNUstep, but this
> can be taken care of in a second step, I guess.
> 
> How does this sound to you? Feedback/input is welcome...:-)

I think the idea is sound, but a couple of things still are problematic
as I discovered. The main issues are the "boot" scripts that start
gdomap and gdnc, and the X user scripts that start gpbs and gsnd (When
will this one be renamed?)

Using the openapp and opentool solution a simple start/stop script can
be written to add to the main rcX.d directories, but how do you solve
that on BSD style installs?

With an include in an xinitrc file, one can solve the start of gpbs and
gsnd, so that one might be easy. Dependend if you want a system install
/etc/X11/xinitrc or user install ~/.xinitrc
You would however need a distro database, since the differences are
hughe between Linux distros, not even thinking about other unices.

Just my 2 cents...


Dennis