[esp-r] Re: Esp-r linux install

[Duncan Lithgow]

i thought I'd get told off for being negative, nice to hear the voice of
reason in the replies! Nice.

On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 09:58 -0300, Lukas Swan (Dal) wrote:
> Good Questions Duncan-
> It seems to me that the precompiled binaries are pretty easy to use.
Yes, it installed perfectly for me on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)

> and Linux environment you do
> still have to go set the path.
I didn't have to do anything at all. gDebi did it for me.

> The compiler and library issues are a different matter.
Sure, but for those who choose to compile from source, they will also have a better knowledge of how to do it.

> the 32 bit libraries are installed as well). Nor does it take advantage of
> the 64 bit processing or the multi-core.
A common problem in OSS, slowly it will change.

On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 12:50 -0400, Ferguson, Alex wrote:
> Both Duncan and Lukas made some valuable observations about the
> compilation and installation of ESP-r. Like the rest of ESP-r, the
> installation script remains a work in progress; comments, criticisms and
> especially contributions are all very welcome.
My own background is that of a student of building systems and construction. So I can see that between Calculix and ESP-r I can almost totally avoid proprietary software for building calculations.
But both packages suffer from a very steep learning curve, and installation must be the first goal of any project looking for a wider audience. ESP-r has already done a lot in this area in the year I've been lurking on the list. (I can't get a GUI for Calculix working at all yet.)

>   I think I can help
> explain why things are the way they are, and provide an overview of
> where we hope ESP-r will go in the coming months. 
> 
> The ESP-r README file contains instructions for updating your path
> variable on bash and csh shells. This step is left to you for these
> reasons:
> 
> - Modifying a system or user profile without their knowlege 
>    would be incosistent with generally accepted UNIX 
>    conventions, and cause grey-haired gurus to send angry 
>    emails in my direction.
That would be bad, maybe an installation dialog would be an idea?

--------------------------
ESP-r would like to make the following changes to your system. 
Unless you know that these changes will cause problems it should 
be safe for you to accept them. If you want to investigate the 
proposed changes the list can be saved to a text file and this 
install will then cancel.

1. Add these location to $PATH: 
2. ...

[ Save list and exit ] [ Accept ]
--------------------------

Duncan