fortran, README.txt, and the supported platforms

[kcrisman]

http://wiki.sagemath.org/SupportedPlatforms is nice. There is stuff
it says would happen in 2010 that didn't :( and some stuff I think did
(OpenSolaris?). It would be nice for someone to update that.

This is tangential to the real reason for this post - namely, even
with updates like #10243, the README.txt is not as helpful as it could
be. For instance, the top instructions don't mention Fortran. (They
also don't mention Solaris.)

Even though both of these things are mentioned later on, at least one
person has been confused - see
http://ask.sagemath.org/question/322/building-sage-461-from-source-fails-because-of

Just putting it out there.

- kcrisman

QUICK INSTRUCTIONS TO BUILD FROM SOURCE
---------------------------------------

The following steps briefly outline the process of building Sage from
source. See below for more detailed instructions.

1. Make sure you have the dependencies and 2.5 GB of free disk space.

Linux (install these using your package manager):

GCC, g++, make, m4, perl, ranlib, and tar.

OS X: XCode. WARNING: If "gcc -v" outputs 4.0.0, you *must*
upgrade XCode (free from Apple), since that version of GCC is
very broken.

Microsoft Windows: Not supported yet.

NOTE: On some operating systems, it might be necessary to install
gas/as, gld/ld, gnm/nm. On most platforms, these are automatically
installed when you install the programs listed above. Only OS X
>= 10.4.x and certain Linux distributions are 100% supported. See
below for a complete list.

[Volker Braun]

I would like to see in $SAGE_ROOT:

README.txt

README-OSX.txt  (instead of sage-README-OSX.txt)

README-Linux.txt

README-Solaris.txt

README-Windows.txt

...

Then we could separate the generic information from system-specific ones. 

Also, all $SAGE_ROOT/*.txt files have to move from the sage_scripts repository to the new sage_root repository (http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/ticket/9433).

[kcrisman]

On Jan 19, 2:47 pm, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to see in $SAGE_ROOT:
>
> README.txt
> README-OSX.txt  (instead of sage-README-OSX.txt)

Just FYI - that file is NOT a normal README, but rather a README that
gets copied when we create a dmg disk image when bdisting Sage on
Mac. It should have been removed from $SAGE_ROOT long ago, since it's
in local/bin/ or something, but it keeps showing up there.

Anyway, so you would be suggesting yet another file.

> README-Linux.txt
> README-Solaris.txt
> README-Windows.txt

[Volker Braun]

I know, and its REALLY weird to have text files in /bin. 

[kcrisman]

True - so find someplace else for it that doesn't clutter up
$SAGE_ROOT and change sage-bdist appropriately :)

I guess it could even go in extcode along with the other stuff for the
OS X binary build... but it's for more than just the .app bundle, so I
don't know if that's appropriate either. Where should text files go?

[Volker Braun]

IMHO "readme"-type text files belong into the root repository. When/if it is implemented:

http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/ticket/9433

[kcrisman]

Ok, but this readme is not a readme, if you catch my drift. It's a
readme we definitely don't want anyone reading, except when it's
bdisted into a dmg top-level directory (above $SAGE_ROOT).