[GRASSLIST:3658] Re: pre-compiled grass0pre4 with PostgreSQL, MESA, R...?

[Glynn Clements]

Bernhard Reiter wrote:

> > > I hope this is not a stupid suggestion but
> > > I was wondering if it would be a good idea
> > > to release a pre-compiled grass package including all
> > > the common libraries (e.g. PostSQL, MESA, R, ...).
> > 
> > It's not a stupid suggestion, in the sense that it isn't obvious that
> > it's not a good idea; until you actually try to do it.
> > 
> > The main problem is that most of the libraries which GRASS uses are
> > already supplied with all of the common Linux distributions. If we
> > supplied our own versions, some of the time it would result in
> > conflicts, possibly causing existing software to cease to function.
> > 
> > Another problem is the amount of work involved in producing
> > pre-compiled libraries for all of the popular distributions 
> 
> The development team certainly welcomes more help with building
> precompiled packages.

Note that I was referring to external libraries rather than binaries
of GRASS itself. Binary packages of GRASS itself are a good thing, but
they should be built using libraries supplied by the OS vendor
wherever possible.

FWIW, the main libraries which GRASS uses which might not be supplied
with the OS proper are FFTW and UnixODBC. However, some distributions
do include these (AFAICT, Mandrake currently includes both; RedHat 7.x
includes UnixODBC). For others, these may exist as "standard" add-ons
(Both RedHat 6.x and 7.x include FFTW in the "PowerTools").

Also, GD-2.x is useful (it supports 24-bit true-colour images), but is
currently beta (the shared library generated by the default Makefile
is problematic; I can provide a better Makefile for anyone wishing to
build this).

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net>