Just downloaded dmd. It's been a while since I last did it.
I was flabbergasted to find that there was no INSTALL.TXT, or at the
very least a mention in README.TXT about where to look for instructions.
(Yes, I found ./html/d/dmd-linux.html but it is not proper to have the
user, especially the non-D-familiar user, be sent on a chase.)
On Linux, the installation is an amazing mixture of private and public
install. On the one hand, the doc has you put the files below home, but
still dmd.conf in /etc, which is a public and root-only writable directory.
To any Linux user this looks *home-made* and *amateurish*, actually
childish.
Instead, an INSTALL.TXT has to be there, you can't expect one to fire up
a graphic user interface just to read the html docs -- especially when
the program to be installed is strictly non-GUI!
And it should be in TWO parts. One part explains how to install dmd for
yourself only. (A "user install".) Another part should explain how to
install dmd for everybody. (A "root install".)
Even if few here share their laptop with others, the UNIX *way* is to
assume several simultaneous users on the computer. (Hell, it's not even
uncommon for dorm residents to pool their money, and buy a serious
computer, but with two screens and two keyboards. (Yes, I know this is
unthinkable for Windows people.)
What this all comes down to, is, one should be able to install dmd for
himself, without root privileges, and another user maybe a different
version of dmd for herself. And a company should be able to install dmd
for everybody on a computer.
----
I suspect there are some real or perceived difficulties with this? But
that's why we have this newsgroup. This embarrasment simply has to go away.
As a side benefit, fixing this most probably yields an easy (and
documented) way to conveniently have several dmd versions installed and
usable. For example, D1 and D2, or the last dmd for research and an
older one for a multi-month pay project.
