[Radiance-dev] Re: Feature request: README.linux

[Gregory J. Ward]

Sure, but Francesco's site isn't a set of installation instructions.   
It's meant to be broader than that, and people can add and delete  
stuff at will.  There is no central location for installation issues  
as far as I know, other than the mailing list.

I don't install many packages these days, and I'm not familiar with  
the current conventions.  If anyone wants to clean up these  
instructions so it fits with others notions of the expected on Linux,  
I'll check in whatever they submit, but I don't promise to maintain  
it.  I'm pretty lousy at maintaining the instructions I have (in case  
you hadn't noticed).

The build system on Radiance doesn't use the standard configure  
scripts and so on, and there's little sense in adding them at this  
point.  Packages under MacOS X are generally installed as binaries.   
I've never bothered to make an OS X package for Radiance, though I  
certainly could.  Such a package would imply a nice application with  
a GUI, and that's not going to happen.  Radiance is not for the  
average user, and giving novices a nice, easy ramp that leads them to  
a cliff seems a bit cruel....

-Greg

> From: "Axel Jacobs" <jacobs.axel at gmail.com>
> Date: December 15, 2008 4:16:09 PM PST
>
> Hi Greg,
>
>> I agree we should have better linkage to Francesco's Wiki -- do you
>> think it should go in the "Resources" list on radiance-online.org?
>> Where would you look for it?  I don't think it belongs on the
>> download page, personally.
>
> As a Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu user, I am somewhat spoiled when it
> comes to installing packages. More often then not, they are available
> for download with one simple command. To be honest, I don't even know
> if MacOS has a similar mechanism. Windows does not.
>
> When I do have to get my fingers dirty with tar balls and compilation,
> all instructions, including dependencies, make commands, compile
> options, switches etc. are usually documented in one or more files
> within the tar ball. This usually means:
> - README: This software does so and so, is written and maintained by
> this guy, published under such-n-such license. Please read LICENSE for
> details about the license. For installation instructions please refer
> to INSTALL.
> - INSTALL: To build this, you need package1, package2 and package3.
> This is how you build the thing: run ./configure, make, make install.
> Or run ./makeall install etc. This is also where compile switches
> would be listed, unless they are available through, e.g. ./configure
> --help
> - Then there might a PACKAGERS, for what Bernd is doing with the
> Debian packages, possibly a MANIFEST, and potentially a few other text
> files of special interest to certain groups of users, such as CVS
> instructions for hackers. BUGS, ISSUES, TODO, But this already pushing
> it. README and INSTALL are the two biggies.
>
> It is very rare indeed to find a README which says: "For installation
> instruction, please go to http://mywebsite.com/mysoft/install.html".
> If the installation or configuration is very different between
> platforms, there might be a README.linux, README.macos, README.win32
> etc.
>
> So I'm not sure that 'Resouces' is a good place for the install
> instructions to live in. Should they not be within the tar ball, or at
> least on the same download page?
>
> Regards
>
> Axel