Re: [Gretl-devel] gretl on Mountain Lion
On Fri, 7 Dec 2012, Henrique Andrade wrote:
Em 07 de dezembro de 2012, Allin Cottrell escreveu:
> On Fri, 7 Dec 2012, Henrique Andrade wrote:
>
>> I'll take a detailed look at these instructions. Maybe I can insert
>> images, if you believe this can improve the understanding.
>
> Thanks, Henrique. Yes, I think screen shots would help.
>
> Up till now I've pretty much been assuming that Mac users know
> how to install software from a dmg, but it seems that's not so
> for many users. Also a first-time gretl installation on ML is
> admittedly a bit complicated since you have to install three
> separate packages.
I agree. This installation procedure is not "Mac-like" and because of
that doesn't provide a good first impression.
> I suppose we could think about bundling GTK in the gretl dmg,
> which would cut out one step.
I have a suggestion (that I get myself thinking about for a long
time): I think the size of modern software increased a lot over time,
so I think it's acceptable that we have a bigger installation file :-)
Also we could bundle Gretl and GTK together (and even X-12 and Tramo).
The downside of greater bundling is that you'd have to
download a whopping great file every time you update. I
suppose we could consider (a) packaging GTK in the gretl
releases for Mac, but (a) not putting GTK into the snapshot
files. That could get confusing, though.
One thing that Mac experts might be able to help with: how to
make the gretl package offer a more "Mac-like" experience for
the user? I know a little bit about that, but I never use OS X
"seriously" myself so my knowledge is seriously incomplete.
And I cross-build the Mac dmg.gz files on Linux. I suppose we
could switch to a mode in which we build an installer for
gretl releases (not snapshots) on OS X itself -- since there
are limits on how truly Mac-like a cross-built package can be.
Allin