Re: [Gnustep-cvs] r31321 - in /tools/make/trunk: ChangeLog GNUstep.conf.in configure configure.ac

[Nicola Pero]

Richard

I don't think you are an idiot at all.  But I suggest we briefly discuss major 
changes on the mailing list before we do them ;-)

So, let's discuss :-)

I generally agree with this change, but if we want to do this change we have to 
do lots of documentation updates.

Otherwise we could have lots of users who install GNUstep, then try to do ". 
/usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh" following documentation they 
read somewhere, that fails and they hit a wall.

My favourite option is to have each filesystem layout file include a snippet of 
documentation that we print at the end of configure (or maybe at the end of 
'make install' ?)

So, you are a new user, and you type 'configure' in gnustep-make.  The thing 
runs and you probably don't understand most of it.  The last lines that 
'configure' prints would be a few lines of help for the filesystem layout that 
you chose ... something like

--- IMPORTANT: READ THE FOLLOWING IF YOU ARE A NEW USER ---
To be able to use GNUstep in the way you have configured it, you must execute 
the following command in the shell:

  . /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh

Add this line to your shell initialization scripts (eg, /etc/profile) to have 
it done automatically each time you login.
---

We could have a similar message for the fhs layout.  How does that sound ?

Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: "Richard Frith-Macdonald" <address@hidden>
Sent: Friday, 10 September, 2010 23:29
To: "Nicola Pero" <address@hidden>
Cc: "Fred Kiefer" <address@hidden>, "GNUstep Developer" <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: [Gnustep-cvs] r31321 - in /tools/make/trunk: ChangeLog 
GNUstep.conf.in configure configure.ac


On 10 Sep 2010, at 21:02, Nicola Pero wrote:

> I think that patch should be reverted for the time being.  Changing the 
> default choices 
> has a massive impact because most users never deviate from the default! ;-)

Exactly why I did it ... after yet *ANOTHER* complaint from a user on the 
mailing list about being unable to use GNUstep because of the issue of the 
default installation not working.  I know that all the user has to do is read 
the INSTALL document or any of the installation HOWTOs etc and source 
GNUstep.sh, but the fact is that most people just don't bother.  IMO we need a 
system that just works.

> We can have a discussion about the patch, and I actually may be in favour 
> of making the change to use the native filesystem as default, but it does 
> require some discussion - and probably should be coordinated so that it
> happens in a release. ;-)

I strongly disagree about leaving it until a release ... how can people try it 
out, decide what they think, offer changes etc if they never see it until it's 
officially released?  The point about svn trunk is for people to try out new 
things.

I don't really mind the change being reverted if you like (the main point being 
to get people to actually do something about the problem), but I think it might 
make more sense to revert to the old behavior *after* everyone has had a chance 
to consider the idea and let me know that I'm an idiot, rather than assuming 
I'm an idiot in advance.