NOT Working (for me!) -> GNUSTEP on Fedora GNULinux OR Windows XP (Service Packs 1 2 and 3)

[Citizen Jimserac]

Having given up on trying to install it on my Fedora GNULinux box (see
below) I thought I would try it on an old Windows XP box I had
(sitting in a closet and waiting to be eventually thrown in the
garbage since I do everything on GNULinux these days).

On XP, I've downloaded and installed everything, in the proper order
(Ming32 version) right from the GnuStep website web page.

The shell works.  I can do compiles and ./configures and makes (yes
gnumakes) and make installs).   BUT.... the ONLY piece of software I
can get to work is GoMoku by N. Pero.  That compiles, installs and
works fine, I tried board sizes up to 20x20.  Tough game to beat at
medium difficulty level too!

All other software packages I've tried, most of them will either not
compile without error or else they will compile fine and then crash on
immediately on startup with a message about do I want to "send" the
bug report to Microsoft (I don't!!).

Even "Calculator", which gives an hour glass for a few moments,
crashes immediately.

As with linux, the full path to the exe must be given.

I went to my old Windows XP box in desperation after having spent
HOURS attemptng to get GNUSTEP to install on my usual Fedora Core 14
box properly.   There the sticking point was ...

"You do not have either ffcall or libffi installed, or configure needs
--with-ffi-include and/or --with-ffi-library flags so GNUstep can find
them,
or you have ffcall but gnustep-make is configured to use native
exceptions
(native exceptions are not compatible with ffcall).
GNUstep requires ffcall or libffi and proper libobjc hooks to do
invocations and DO.
(This does not apply on apple-apple-apple systems where DO is
not compatible with other GNUstep systems.)"

"You most likely do not want to build base without DO support. Many
things, including all applications, won't work at all without DO.
If you really want to build -base without DO support, add --disable-do
to the configure arguments.
For more information, read the GNUstep build guide, ffcall section:
http://gnustep.made-it.com/BuildGuide/index.html
configure: error: Incomplete support for ffi functionality."

The "For more information" ffcall section does some explaining but
does not give sufficient info to fix the problem.  In particular, it
should have given some example commands using the ffi ./configure
flags in addition to giving some indication as to when they are used,
if both flags are needed and when, and under what circumstances ffcall
might have been used instead, and how.

Since it is obvious the developers have spent YEARS on this thing and
it has impressive features and potential,  it is obviously my own lack
of expertise that is blocking me from trying it out.  But... I only
have so much time for it.

As a last ditch effort, I downloaded and burned the GNUSTEP live iso
on a cd and tried to boot with that.  My older Magnavox LCD flat
screen monitor flummoxed that attempt.  The install goes smoothly, it
detects various hardware thingies, the wireless card etc. but then
stops at a shell prompt after failing to start XWindows.   Trying
"startx" at this point crashes with a blank screen.  But, since I have
a usable shell at that point (complete with nice blue screen
bacground) perhaps I can fiddle with xorg.conf and get up some kind of
generic monitor/xwindow settings.

Last but not least the GNUSTEP live CD will not boot at all on my 2006
Sony Vaio Laptop, perhaps the encrypted disk is giving it a problem, I
don't know.

The only thing I have to try is to go back to the XP box (Yuck!) , and
look at the code for Pero's GoMoku which is the only thing that works
(?!!) and see what his code is in comparison with the code in the
examples that I got from the GNUSTEP website. I did compile that from
a different place than where I put the GNUSTEP website example code
and games.  Or get a newer flat screen.

J