Hi there!

I'm new to D - I run a company in Sweden that are thinking of starting development in the D Language.

There is a problem though... It's a pain to install. Is there some major reason why you (Digital Mars) do not provide Debian packages (and others) for gdc?

The thing is: When you run modern Linux distributions you want everything just to work. And packet managers are quite good at making this a reality.

Ps.
  It is really a good thing to make these things _simple_ to install as possible - If you want programmers to start using the product.
Ds.

Yours truly,
//Joakim Karlsson

Joakim Karlsson wrote:

> I'm new to D - I run a company in Sweden that are thinking of starting development in the D Language.

Låter bra! (Sounds good!)

> There is a problem though... It's a pain to install. Is there some major reason why you (Digital Mars) do not provide Debian packages (and others) for gdc?

Note: Digital Mars makes DMD, while GDC is more of a volunteer effort.
(DMD also needs Linux packaging, but since it is non-distributable...)

I've done some RPM packages before, but am the doing Mac packages now.
One problem has been that you either need a bundled GCC (making it huge), or you need to work with the system GCC (making it "dependent")
So aside from a source package, a binary package is not all that easy.

> The thing is: When you run modern Linux distributions you want everything just to work. And packet managers are quite good at making this a reality.

No argument there. Are you volunteering to make a Debian package ? :-)

Have my old RPM spec up at http://www.algonet.se/~afb/d/gdc.spec (0.15),
might try to update it for 0.17 and build it on Fedora just to test it.

--anders

It doesn't take long to make your own install script that does all the steps of installing dmd on linux for you.

I have made one which is very specifically for me. I know others have made some as well.

I'm guessing the reason they don't make .deb's is because they don't have time to support all of linux's package formats, and leave that as a task for others.

~ Clay

Joakim Karlsson wrote:
> Hi there!
> 
> I'm new to D - I run a company in Sweden that are thinking of starting development in the D Language.
> 
> There is a problem though... It's a pain to install. Is there some major reason why you (Digital Mars) do not provide Debian packages (and others) for gdc?
> 
> The thing is: When you run modern Linux distributions you want everything just to work. And packet managers are quite good at making this a reality.
> 
> Ps.
>   It is really a good thing to make these things _simple_ to install as possible - If you want programmers to start using the product.
> Ds.
> 
> Yours truly,
> //Joakim Karlsson

I decided I'd provide a sample of how this can be done. Take it with a grain of salt :-P This script is very specific to my machine.

clayasaurus wrote:
> It doesn't take long to make your own install script that does all the steps of installing dmd on linux for you.
> 
> I have made one which is very specifically for me. I know others have made some as well.
> 
> I'm guessing the reason they don't make .deb's is because they don't have time to support all of linux's package formats, and leave that as a task for others.
> 
> ~ Clay
> 
> Joakim Karlsson wrote:
> 
>> Hi there!
>>
>> I'm new to D - I run a company in Sweden that are thinking of starting development in the D Language.
>>
>> There is a problem though... It's a pain to install. Is there some major reason why you (Digital Mars) do not provide Debian packages (and others) for gdc?
>>
>> The thing is: When you run modern Linux distributions you want everything just to work. And packet managers are quite good at making this a reality.
>>
>> Ps.
>>   It is really a good thing to make these things _simple_ to install
>> as possible - If you want programmers to start using the product.
>> Ds.
>>
>> Yours truly,
>> //Joakim Karlsson
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

clayasaurus wrote:

> I decided I'd provide a sample of how this can be done. Take it with a grain of salt :-P This script is very specific to my machine.

Why do you copy it to your home directory first and chown it to you ?
Looks like it might just as well install it to /usr/local directly...
(assuming that Phobos is also installed under /usr/local, that is)

I put my own scripts on the Wiki4D:
http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial/InstallingDCompiler#InstallingDMDonLinuxX86
Shows both how to install in /usr/local, and in your home directory.


Somehow, upgrading a package is still easier than running this script ?

And the OP asked about GDC installation, which is a little different.
(your script showed how to install DMD, as per the original manual)

--anders

clayasaurus wrote:

> I'm guessing the reason they don't make .deb's is because they don't have time to support all of linux's package formats, and leave that as a task for others.

But they don't provide rpms either, even if it has been done by others ?
(I think the main reason is because Walter *prefers* doing it manually)

GDC is easy to package since it's GPL, but DMD is somewhat "trickier"...
(since you cannot redistribute the packaged software, it's useless.
 Kinda like the mess that Sun has made with the RPMS for Java 2 ?)

--anders

I know, my script sucks, I just wanted to show it is possible to easily do.

Anders F Björklund wrote:
> clayasaurus wrote:
> 
>> I decided I'd provide a sample of how this can be done. Take it with a grain of salt :-P This script is very specific to my machine.
> 
> 
> Why do you copy it to your home directory first and chown it to you ?
> Looks like it might just as well install it to /usr/local directly...
> (assuming that Phobos is also installed under /usr/local, that is)
> 
> I put my own scripts on the Wiki4D:
> http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial/InstallingDCompiler#InstallingDMDonLinuxX86 
> 
> Shows both how to install in /usr/local, and in your home directory.
> 
> 
> Somehow, upgrading a package is still easier than running this script ?
> 
> And the OP asked about GDC installation, which is a little different.
> (your script showed how to install DMD, as per the original manual)
> 
> --anders

clayasaurus wrote:

> I know, my script sucks, I just wanted to show it is possible to easily do.

I wouldn't say that it sucks, I just meant that with a few minor adjustments (such as replacing "/home/clayasaurus" with just "~")
it would be more generic and all wouldn't have to write their own?


One point I was trying to make in the Wiki4D is that there are two
methods of installing DMD, either in your home dir (and C:\, etc.)
*or* you install it in the usual locations (/usr, /usr/local, etc.)

The current Digital Mars DMD instructions is a pretty weird mix...
(installing parts in ~/dmd, parts in /usr and parts in /usr/local?)
For the DMD packaging I did, they placed Phobos in /usr/lib/phobos


But I think I will just let Walter sort that out on his own. :-)

--anders

Anders F Björklund wrote:

> clayasaurus wrote:
> 
>> I know, my script sucks, I just wanted to show it is possible to easily do.
> 
> I wouldn't say that it sucks, I just meant that with a few minor adjustments (such as replacing "/home/clayasaurus" with just "~")
> it would be more generic and all wouldn't have to write their own?
> 
> One point I was trying to make in the Wiki4D is that there are two
> methods of installing DMD, either in your home dir (and C:\, etc.)
> *or* you install it in the usual locations (/usr, /usr/local, etc.)
> 
> The current Digital Mars DMD instructions is a pretty weird mix...
> (installing parts in ~/dmd, parts in /usr and parts in /usr/local?)
> For the DMD packaging I did, they placed Phobos in /usr/lib/phobos
> 
> 
> But I think I will just let Walter sort that out on his own. :-)
> 

Well.. I was asking about GDC and not DMD, but thanks anyway. I guess it will take some time before I bother, then.

//Joakim

Joakim Karlsson wrote:

> Well.. I was asking about GDC and not DMD, but thanks anyway.
> I guess it will take some time before I bother, then.

Were you looking for a "bundle" with GCC / G++, or just the
frontend for D ? (i.e. the gdc, gdmd and cc1d/libgphobos.a)

Main difference is whether we're talking 3 or 30 MB package...


I don't use Debian/Ubuntu myself, but have done packages for
RedHat/Fedora, Gentoo and for Mac OS X. (specs posted earlier)

To make a Debian package, a DEB maintainer needs to volunteer.

--anders