Windows binary

[Waldek Hebisch]

Krystian Baclawski now created a Windows (Cygwin) binary.
To try it one should first install Cygwin and Xming.
The instructions that we had for 1.0.8 should apply.

--
Waldek Hebisch
heb...@math.uni.wroc.pl

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> Krystian Baclawski now created a Windows (Cygwin) binary.
> To try it one should first install Cygwin and Xming.
> The instructions that we had for 1.0.8 should apply.

Where is the binary? I cannot find it under
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fricas/files/fricas/1.2.0

And what does it mean "instructions for 1.0.8"? Do you mean the
INSTALL.CYGWIN file?

Ralf

[Waldek Hebisch]

>
> > Krystian Baclawski now created a Windows (Cygwin) binary.
> > To try it one should first install Cygwin and Xming.
> > The instructions that we had for 1.0.8 should apply.
>
> Where is the binary? I cannot find it under
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/fricas/files/fricas/1.2.0
>

Oops, sorry. I forgot to give the link:

http://www.math.uni.wroc.pl/~hebisch/fricas/fricas-1.2.0-win32.tbz

I would like to have some feedback before I put the binaries
on Sourceforge.

> And what does it mean "instructions for 1.0.8"? Do you mean the
> INSTALL.CYGWIN file?

No. INSTALL.CYGWIN is about compiling FriCAS. I mean

http://fricas.sourceforge.net/doc/INSTALL-bin.txt

The last part deals with installing binary. I do not know if
just pointing Cygwin installer on FriCAS tarball will work, but
almost surely you need to install mentioned parts of Cygwin
before the binary will work.

--
Waldek Hebisch
heb...@math.uni.wroc.pl

[Ralf Hemmecke]

>> And what does it mean "instructions for 1.0.8"? Do you mean the
>> INSTALL.CYGWIN file?
>
> No. INSTALL.CYGWIN is about compiling FriCAS. I mean
>
> http://fricas.sourceforge.net/doc/INSTALL-bin.txt

> The last part deals with installing binary. I do not know if
> just pointing Cygwin installer on FriCAS tarball will work, but
> almost surely you need to install mentioned parts of Cygwin
> before the binary will work.

In Devel: gcc-mingw
gcc-mingw-core

Why do I need a C compiler to run the fricas binary? Are you saying
there is some compilation involved?

In Math: clisp

Why clisp and not sbcl? I havent' yet looked at it but isn't the binary
just something that I have to extract?

In Publishing: psutils
tetex
tetex-base
tetex-bin
tetex-extra
tetex-tiny
tetex-x11
I need to install tex into cygwin so that FriCAS will work? You don't
mean that.

In X11: xterm
xinit
font-adobe-dpi75

That's from cygwin, right? Where does that xming come in? Sorry, but
Windows isn't my primary system. And I would favour a better description
of the steps.

In Editors: emacs
emacs-X11

OK, but is should be marked as optional. And the efricas script that
comes with the .tbz tarball should deal with the case that emacs is not
installed and simply call fricas without emacs (maybe giving a hint that
one should install emacs).

Ralf

[Waldek Hebisch]

Ralf Hemmecke wrote:
>
> >> And what does it mean "instructions for 1.0.8"? Do you mean the
> >> INSTALL.CYGWIN file?
> >
> > No. INSTALL.CYGWIN is about compiling FriCAS. I mean
> >
> > http://fricas.sourceforge.net/doc/INSTALL-bin.txt
>
> > The last part deals with installing binary. I do not know if
> > just pointing Cygwin installer on FriCAS tarball will work, but
> > almost surely you need to install mentioned parts of Cygwin
> > before the binary will work.
>
> In Devel: gcc-mingw
> gcc-mingw-core
>
> Why do I need a C compiler to run the fricas binary? Are you saying
> there is some compilation involved?
>
> In Math: clisp
>
> Why clisp and not sbcl?

The Cygwin binary is build on top of clisp.

> I havent' yet looked at it but isn't the binary
> just something that I have to extract?
>
> In Publishing: psutils
> tetex
> tetex-base
> tetex-bin
> tetex-extra
> tetex-tiny
> tetex-x11
> I need to install tex into cygwin so that FriCAS will work? You don't
> mean that.
>
> In X11: xterm
> xinit
> font-adobe-dpi75
>
> That's from cygwin, right? Where does that xming come in? Sorry, but
> Windows isn't my primary system. And I would favour a better description
> of the steps.
>
> In Editors: emacs
> emacs-X11
>
> OK, but is should be marked as optional. And the efricas script that
> comes with the .tbz tarball should deal with the case that emacs is not
> installed and simply call fricas without emacs (maybe giving a hint that
> one should install emacs).

The instructions were made by Martin Rubey. AFAICS he selected
set of packages that worked for him and his students. It is
tempting to drop some packages as unneeded, but first one should
check...

--
Waldek Hebisch
heb...@math.uni.wroc.pl

[Krystian Bacławski]

> Krystian Baclawski now created a Windows (Cygwin) binary.
> To try it one should first install Cygwin and Xming.
> The instructions that we had for 1.0.8 should apply.

I turned out that Xming doesn't behave well on my build configuration
so I decided to switch to Cygwin/X.

The archive on Waldek's web page should be unpacked into Cygwin's root
directory. Then FriCAS can be started just by typing in
/opt/fricas/bin/fricas command.

I made an experiment with fresh Cygwin installation. It seems that
following list of extra packages makes FriCAS running without any
noticeable problems: xorg-server, xinit, xterm, clisp.

We have to use Clisp, as it's the only common lisp implementation
provided by Cygwin environment. I made an attempt to build FriCAS with
SBCL 1.1.4 (downloaded from the website) but it doesn't cooperate with
Cygwin at all (e.g. doesn't understand unix paths).

--
Kind regards
Krystian Bacławski

[Ralf Hemmecke]

On 04/28/2013 10:42 PM, Krystian Bacławski wrote:
> I made an experiment with fresh Cygwin installation. It seems that
> following list of extra packages makes FriCAS running without any
> noticeable problems: xorg-server, xinit, xterm, clisp.

I've installed that, but not xorg-server. FriCAS runs and the HyperDoc
window pops up. I just cannot move windows. I guess, I have to install
some window manager. Which one?

Ralf

[Krystian Bacławski]

> I've installed that, but not xorg-server. FriCAS runs and the HyperDoc
> window pops up. I just cannot move windows. I guess, I have to install
> some window manager. Which one?

I guess xorg-server gets installed implicitely when you install xinit.

The symptoms you describe are somewhat strange. I didn't have to
install WM at all. Everything works well with the default setup.

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> I guess xorg-server gets installed implicitely when you install xinit.

Yep. xorg-server 1.13.3-1 got installed.

> The symptoms you describe are somewhat strange. I didn't have to
> install WM at all. Everything works well with the default setup.

Well, I've certainly done something wrong, but since there is not yet a
proper installation instruction, I simply start cygwin, then type xinit
into that terminal and voila, I get X without a window manager (of
course). I've installed OpenBox. That seemed to hang. Now I tried Fvwm.
That worked better, although (surprisingly) I don't get
mini/maximize/close buttons. But otherwise hyperdoc came up and also
efricas started fricas inside emacs.

Anyway, the starting procedure is too complicated, nobody will bother to
start FriCAS this way. I cannot help with Windows any further. I believe
a better way to start FriCAS on Windows is to provide a virtual machine
image. OK, our poor Windows users won't be happy with that either.

Ralf

[Krystian Bacławski]

> Well, I've certainly done something wrong, but since there is not yet a
> proper installation instruction, I simply start cygwin, then type xinit
> into that terminal and voila, I get X without a window manager (of
> course). I've installed OpenBox. That seemed to hang. Now I tried Fvwm.
> That worked better, although (surprisingly) I don't get
> mini/maximize/close buttons. But otherwise hyperdoc came up and also
> efricas started fricas inside emacs.

Please launch X server from start menu - it's under "Cygwin/X => XWin
Server" entry.

There's absolutely no need for a window manager. Please don't run any.
AFAIU by default X server uses Windows API to manage windows.

> Anyway, the starting procedure is too complicated, nobody will bother to
> start FriCAS this way. I cannot help with Windows any further. I believe
> a better way to start FriCAS on Windows is to provide a virtual machine
> image. OK, our poor Windows users won't be happy with that either.

It didn't take me more than 3 steps to run FriCAS on a Windows machine
without Cygwin installed. Don't panic - just make sure you run X
server in multi-window mode.

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> Please launch X server from start menu - it's under "Cygwin/X => XWin
> Server" entry.

Thanks a lot. Yes. That works much much better. I hope that description
makes it into the install-and-start-me documentation.

Well done!

Ralf

[Bill Page]

> Ralf Hemmecke wrote:
> >
> > Why do I need a C compiler to run the fricas binary? Are you saying
> > there is some compilation involved?
> >
> > In Math: clisp
> >
> > Why clisp and not sbcl?
>

Don't you need a C compiler to generate code when Lisp is compiled,
e.g. when functions are compiled by the Interpreter or when you run
SPAD? Or do only some versions of Lisp require this, e.g. GCL?

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

Only GCL and ECL (to some extent) require a C compiler for a fully
functional Lisp system.

-- Gaby

[Waldek Hebisch]

I have now uploaded binary to Sourceforge and updated INSTALL-bin.txt
page.

--
Waldek Hebisch
heb...@math.uni.wroc.pl