Re: [Gcl-devel] Build directions for up-to-date Win32 GCL using Git and MinGW with GCC 4.8.1

[Donald Winiecki]

I'm attaching an update to previously-posted directions. There were a
few small, but show-stopping errors introduced by the
loose-nut-on-my-keyboard (if you know what I mean). There may yet be
more ferrets-in-the-sack, as they say.

Setting path for MinGW worked automatically on my Win7 machine but not
on my WinXP setup. I could include a note to ask the user to proceed
with setting the path variable only if working on WinXP. I'll
double-check with the MinGW developers to see if this is a known
issue.

I agree that there are probably few individuals in the current crop of
users (that is, those who have a primary interest in a CAS product and
not in Lisp, as such) who will attempt to build GCL from source, other
than those who develop those CAS products.

That said, if GCL comes to behave well in SLIME, with ASDF and
ultimately with Quicklisp, we may see a broader user base -- though
this is really flamboyant speculation based on my observation that if
a person uses Lisp regularly, he or she probably has a collection of
Lisp implementations available at any given time.  (That is, we seem
to collect Lisps, for whatever reason.)

When we stabilize the build directions, we can look for a place in the
source tree for its components. Right now, it is put together using
LibreOffice and saved in ODT format. I imagine PDF to be a more common
deliverable format due to its ubiquity on Win32.

Finally, and for what it's worth, I would be interested in your setup
directions for EGG. We could add it to the directions for the special
value it offers to those who appreciate the thing(s) Emacs is.

Best,

_don



On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 7:11 AM, Camm Maguire <address@hidden> wrote:
> What to say -- this is simply spectacular!  I haven't gone through all
> the steps yet to verify them, and may have future comments if I get to
> that, but this level of polish and detail is simply way beyond anything
> else we manage to accomplish here!
>
> I do think the screenshots are probably central given the installers out
> there, though I'm sure this must be a pain to create and maintain.  Do
> you want to check in the component files for this in the source tree
> somewhere?
>
> One thing I did not remember having to fiddle with to the extent you
> have is the path variable.  It seemed to be setup automatically on
> clicking the c:\MinGW\msys\1.0\msys.bat icon.
>
> For diehard emacs enthusiasts, I could explain how to setup egg and to
> set the mingw bash shell as an emacs subshell if desired.  This is
> probably only useful to me, I imagine.
>
> It is worth us considering how many people are actually going to try to
> build gcl on windows as apart from download a cas built atop it.  I
> suspect a tiny fraction of those who will build on some unix like
> machine, due to the culture.
>
> Take care,
> --
> Camm Maguire                                        address@hidden
> ==========================================================================
> "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah

Build Win32 GCL using Git & GCC481 (11072013).pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document