Re: GNUstep roadmap (was Re: [Suggestion] GNUstep-test for quality control)

[Dennis Leeuw]

Björn Giesler wrote:
> Hi,
>
> sorry for barging in... I think that Chad is going exactly the right
> direction with SimplyGNUstep. IMHO, there are lots of good
> Linux/BSD/whatever distributions around; no need to build yet another
> one.
>
> GNUstep is a Software System; a set of libraries that completely
> abstracts away the operating system, and apps built on top of that.
> It can be (theoretically) built for almost any OS out there, just as
> Linux can be (theoretically) built for almost any hardware out there.
>
>
> Therefore I think that there should be a GNUstep distribution,
> distributing GNUstep as if it were an operating system and packaging
> precompiled binaries of GNUstep libraries and a number of core apps.
> This could be built/made downloadable for a number of different
> platforms, and form one big tgz/whatever. There isn't even the need
> to make rpms, debs or any other of those crocks, because GNUstep
> lives completely in its own directory and needs relatively little
> else. Creating something like that should even be relatively easy, at
> least for a small number of well-known platforms.
>
> That's what I think. What about you?

The direct thing that pops up in my head is: Dependency hell...
Finding out if all dependencies are forfilled for make, base, gui and 
back is no fun at all.
I am currently building a list that does just that (I need it for the 
Build Guide since a couple of things seem to be missing). And it is a 
horrible job with a lot of nasty scripts.

To let you all in on something I am working on... I have created a 
script with a couple of precompiled binaries that creates me a nice 
bootable CD from a life system that has a GNUstep environment.
I will create a small system esp. aimed at GNUstep that will become Ocean.

Ocean will be a mini distro on a bootable CD. If it boots on your 
system, you can copy it to an HD. Some scripts will be provided to set 
things up. All is in my head and I will start to write everything out as 
time permits. I will document first and build later, so don't hold your 
breath, but I think this will be the way to go.

The last couple of days I have spend rebuilding GNUstep and the working 
apps from scratch and I noticed that most "make install"s on the apps 
are faster then most package managers :)

So a basic distribution, with just the sources might work out just fine.

Dennis

>
> Regards, Björn
>
>
>
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