Unix VM isArray

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Thu Apr 1 18:03:03 UTC 2004


Michael Roberts <mike at mjr104.co.uk> wrote:
> I'd just like us to be able to document the exact steps that are needed to build the VM at any point in time.  This needs an FAQ entry.  I would also like to write a script that automates this.  This could then be run as a test to check that the VM can always be built the documented way.

There is a lot of documentation on building within the Unix source tree
-- have you looked at platforms/unix/doc ?

IMHO, there should be a difference between people who just want to
compile the VM and people who want to work on it.  People who just want
to compile it should *not* be pulling down CVS and running VMMaker etc. 
They should grab a released source tarball and do "./configure; make" in
it.  I have just posted such a thing for Ned's modifications.  For such
people, we already do have good instructions and a build script.

I don't know whether a developer build script will help or not.  You'd
still have the effort of assembling the directory tree.  It would be
cool, at least, to see Squeak run from a shell script, since it so
rarely is!  I dunno whether it has real value or not.



> Do we need to more generally discuss Unix VM maintenance and production?  
> Is Ian's page a little out of date?

Well, if you want 3.7 support today it is out of date.  There was also a
multiple year lag between full sound support becoming available and
sound support appearing in Ian's distribution.

My take on this is as follows.  I hope I am being fair, but I think this
is correct.  Ian seems to have update cycles spanning approximately 1-2
years.  When he does an update, it tends to include every outstanding
patch or a reimplementation thereof, and it tend to be a great release
to use.  0.5 years or so later it is often good to include one or
another patch along with it.

Other arrangements are possible that may work better.  Ian has mentioned
in the past the possibility of arranging someone else as the day to day
maintainer of Squeak/Unix.  This may be a good idea to pursue, though
I'm not sure how to set up the details.  The simplest way would be to
name someone else as the maintainer and let Ian be the main contributor.
 Sort of a producer/director setup.  :)  But there are other
possibilities, I'm sure, if we are creative about it.

Also keep in mind that the project is open source.  Everyone can choose
what they download and install, and anyone can post a file holding their
prefered set of patches if they want.


-Lex



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