On Sun, Jul 08, 2007 at 01:26:04PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> flavor, containing: > On 7/8/07, Steve Friis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > What you have below is great. Just one thought here though. In the > > scripts folder there is a script file <get-maptools.sh> that pretty much > > installs everything. Is this going to go away? I think it sure made the > > install easy. Gives you all the needed libraries. > > > > Steve/WM5Z > > > It might be just me, but I like to install as much as possible from the > repositories for the applicable distribution, and then if there is anything > left, use the get-maptools script to make up the difference. That looks > like the approach taken in the HowTo:Ubuntu 6.10 or > 7.04<http://www.xastir.org/wiki/index.php/HowTo:Ubuntu_6.10>.
My intention with the HowTo:Ubuntu... page was to describe how a typical user might want to install xastir. That being the case, one would want to allow the package management system to handle the maximum number of external libraries --- that way they are always updated and rarely stuck at ancient versions. Once you decide to install a software tool by hand from source, you're exempting that package from automatic updates through the package management system. get-maptools.sh is convenient, but it installs particular revisions of some software that is better left to the package management system, such as pcre. pcre can be required by more than just xastir, and has more updates than most of the other things that get-maptools.sh installs. Installing an old version from source can cause problems for those managed packages that need it. get-maptools installs pcre 6.3, and the current version is past 7.0. Proj.4 is another thing that is easily installed through the package management system, and while it is more stable than most things, is still subject to more updates than get-maptools is. Proj.4 is already up to 4.5.x, and get-maptools still installs 4.4.9 (at least two releases old). Most package management systems track that reasonably well --- it's certainly the case that Ubuntu and FreeBSD both have current proj versionsin their package systems. gdal, not needed by most users, is installed by get-maptools by default, and it's not even a current version --- they're coming up on release 1.4.2 now, and get-maptools still installs 1.3.2 (I updated that back in November, and it's already stale). Not that it matters for xastir, because xastir barely uses that library. But try to install any current version of GRASS or QGIS, and GDAL 1.3.2 will cause some problems. Further, get-maptools is not actively maintained by any xastir developer, and we usually don't update the software it installs until someone points out that the versions it's looking for aren't available anymore, or someone gets a wild hair and goes through it looking for moldy versions. On my own systems, I tend to install software from bleeding-edge source code only for those packages for which I need bleeding-edge, or for which the system's package management system is absurdly stale --- for example, GRASS QGIS, and GDAL are almost never cutting edge (or even current) in most package management systems, and are usually at least two or three releases behind the times. And once I've made the decision to do that, I'm stuck checking for new versions rather frequently. But shapelib is pretty much at a development dead end, so there's no need to install it from sources unless there's no packaged version available. So basically, get-maptools is a nice tool for when you *can't* get everything installed even easier through the package management system, or for when the versions in the package management system are even staler than the ones that get-maptools installs. In short, I think it's wise for the Wiki HowTo pages for specific OS installs to document the install for that system making use of the maximum number of managed packages, and to minimize the amount of software downloaded and installed outside of the package management system. Individual users who have special needs can figure out how to modify the instructions to get what they want, and those who just want something that works and is stable can follow the instructions as written. -- Tom Russo KM5VY SAR502 DM64ux http://www.swcp.com/~russo/ Tijeras, NM QRPL#1592 K2#398 SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM "And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" --- The Tick _______________________________________________ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
