Install check?

[Anders F Björklund]

Georg Wrede wrote:

> With two compilers, all the platforms (Windows, Mac, various Linuxes) 
> and at least two lucrative base libraries (Tango and Phobos) -- and 
> especially since the newcomer can't simply choose like "compiler, OS, 
> lib, root/luser" etc, and simply have a self-installing complete binary 
> automatically sent to you (hint, hint), I suggest the following:

I built binaries of D 1.0, and plan to build another set with Tango 1.0
They didn't make it upstream as official binaries, simply because the
maintainers (DMD and GDC) prefers to offer ZIP archives or TBZ tarballs.

When/if they do, the gdcwin/gdcmac/gdcgnu projects will all be obsolete.

> Just like hello.d we should have a checkinstall.d that you should try to 
> build. It would have static asserts (or whatever it takes) that inform 
> the user about what's wrong. Probably one should first run a 
> checkinstall.{sh|bat} too to inform of the most basic problems.
> 
> Such should be standard issue with all distributions.

I'm sure such a program or script would be a welcome addition to D.

> Today, many end up tweaking paths, library paths, choosing install 
> directories, contents and placements of the "ini" file, and whatnot. Of 
> course such could ultimately be avoided by adequate and prominent 
> documentation and targeted binary installs. But the checkinstall stuff 
> is more robust and could in principle be bullet proof. As in, either it 
> passes, or it discovers what's wrong. Oh, and how to remedy that.

All my GDC installers follow the same pattern, no tweaking required.
You can just install the EXE/PKG/RPM, and it will use the standard
system locations for the installation. No documentation yet, except:

http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial/InstallingDCompiler

--anders