On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 3:40 PM, P Kishor <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Matthew Kenworthy > <[email protected]> wrote: >>> having to write platform-specific instructions. You still have to show >>> users where to get a build environment with gcc, make and libc and how >>> to set it up. This step alone is more complicated and no less >>> platform-specific than the PDL binary install. So you don't save >>> anything. In fact, you just made it more complicated because now the >>> user has to setup several packages (gcc, make, libc, cpan) instead of >>> just one (PDL) and all that is just as platform-specific as the PDL >>> install you were trying to replace. >> >> Whoa. I've *never* read any source install where the first step is >> 'install gcc'! >> >> Assuming gcc and make are available is considered pretty safe with linux. >> > > > Not on a Mac though. You need to install Xcode in order to get gcc on > a Mac. So, you can install binary applications (for example, one-click > SciPDL or whatever it might be called in the future) on a Mac without > Xcode, but in order to install anything, no matter how simple, via > cpan, you do need to install Xcode first. > >
I must add the following two truisms to be more complete and fair -- 1. Xcode is completely free, and it is really just a one-click install. It is, however, a circa 1 GB download, and requires a free membership at developer.apple.com, unless you have a Mac which came with Xcode disks (I am not sure if the new Macs come with it... they probably do since the entire installation medium is a DVD with gobs of stuff on it); 2. Anyone wanting to install and use PDL is not going to be averse to installing Xcode. The PDL user is, sooner or later, going to require some module from CPAN, and no matter how insignificant or small that module might be, and even if that module is being installed against the system Perl, Xcode will be needed. (Truth be told, I am not entirely sure about this -- I don't know if a pure perl module can be installed without requiring gcc; maybe, maybe not -- I just personally never encountered a Mac without Xcode). -- Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org Science Commons Fellow, http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/kishor Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Assertions are politics; backing up assertions with evidence is science ======================================================================= _______________________________________________ Perldl mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl
