[GRASS-dev] Wingrass and TclTk

[Brad Douglas]

On Fri, 2007-11-02 at 02:32 +0000, Glynn Clements wrote:
> Brad Douglas wrote:
> 
> > > > > Let's just all try and put together a complete list of what's
> > > > > needed first, then I'll have a go at it.
> > > > 
> > > > I haven't been following the thread, but caught something interesting in
> > > > this message.
> > > > 
> > > > It may be overkill, but I'd like to add configure checks for the final
> > > > listing.  What we have has served us well, but adding more checks takes
> > > > little time and would help catch portability issues.
> > > > 
> > > > Please cc: me on the final list unless someone decides this would be
> > > > more clutter than solution.
> > > 
> > > configure is meant for compile-time checks. You can still build GRASS
> > > without the utilities which are used in scripts. Conversely, just
> > > because the utilities are present on the host, it doesn't mean that
> > > they will be present on the target.
> > 
> > Why not check and disable parts that do not have the required
> > program(s)?
> 
> There's no need to disable a script just because the host doesn't have
> the files it uses. The host doesn't need them and the target may well
> have them.

I disagree only because most scripts do not exit informatively enough
for users to discover and correct the problem.

> > Target<->host isn't a great argument.  You can say that with just about
> > anything in configure. 
> 
> No; configure checks what is required for building a project. It
> cannot detect whether you will be able to run it, and doesn't attempt
> to.

True, but there's no rule against it and I've seen other projects do it.

> > In the vast majority of instances, GRASS is
> > packaged.  When I build a new RPM spec file, configure.in is very useful
> > in revealing dependencies.
> 
> You shouldn't be listing every program which some script *might* use
> as a dependency.
> 
> The dependencies for a GRASS RPM (etc) should be those packages
> without which it will be largely unusable (e.g. GDAL, PROJ). It would
> be quite annoying if you wanted to install it for use in a web
> application and it insisted upon installing Tcl/Tk, X, OpenGL etc.

Again, I disagree.  I think you're underestimating the stupidity of
humans.  If someone needs it for a specific application, then they
should build it themselves.  I used to get quite a few emails until I
significantly tightened up the dependencies.  I now get 0 other than the
occasional query about why GRASS has so many dependencies, which is why
I now build two versions.

However, I have no problem so long as you're nominating yourself to deal
with every user that reports problems that are caused by missing
programs. ;-)  (Not terribly frequent, but frequent enough for me)

As a compromise, how about just putting that list on the wiki or in
grass6/rpm to make it easier for packagers to build dependencies (in the
interest of quelling some of the non-problem reports)?


-- 
73, de Brad KB8UYR/6 <rez touchofmadness com>