[Gretl-users] questions about the next release
It's time we put out a new gretl release (this will be 1.9.13) and
we're pretty much ready to do that. But first I'd like to ask a
couple of questions, about the gretl packages for MS Windows and Mac
OS X, and see what people have to say.
MS Windows:
For some time now I've been putting up snapshots with a 64-bit build
of gretl for Windows; see
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gretl/files/windows-testing/
I've tested this myself on Windows 8 and found no problems. (There
was a problem with gnuplot at first but that is long since fixed.)
Since 64-bit Windows is becoming more widespread I think it would be
worth moving this out of testing and offering it as a regular
download option. Anyone see any reason why not? (Since the 32-bit
version runs OK on win64 but not vice versa we could say something
like, "If you're not sure which version you need, choose the 32-bit
one.")
Mac OS X:
For some time I've kept the snapshot gretl-quartz.dmg.gz up to date;
see
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gretl/files/osx-testing/
Unlike our "regular" OS X packages this one does not require that
X11 be installed, and neither does it require a separate download of
the GTK "framework" -- it is self-contained. In addition it is a
64-bit build and it is somewhat more "Mac-like" in its behavior than
our other packages.
Anyway, I'm thinking we should probably make this "quartz" version
of gretl the default download for Intel macs from the next release
onward (while keeping the X11 version available as an option).
My main reason for saying this is that various changes in OS X since
10.6 have made it more difficult for the "average" user to install
any third-party software supplied in the form of a disk image (dmg),
as gretl is -- let alone to install three pieces of software (X11,
GTK, gretl) as required by the X11 build. We really should supply
totally explicit instructions (preferably with screenshots), and
this is much more feasible for an all-in-one package.
There are a couple of reasons why some users might prefer to stick
with the X11 version, but I don't think these will apply to most Mac
users:
(1) keyboard navigation of the GUI is not as well supported in the
quartz version at present (this may fix itself as the
gtk-mac-integration library improves over time); and
(2) to avoid dependence on X11, the interactive gnuplot "terminal"
shipped in the quartz package is "aquaterm", which looks quite nice
but does not support interactive manipulation of "3-dimensional"
plots. Note that this has nothing to do with most of the plots
displayed by gretl, which don't use any gnuplot "terminal"; it's
only 3-D plots we're talking about.
So my question here is: does anyone have reason to think we
shouldn't switch to 64-bit gretl-quartz as our default offering for
the Mac?
Allin Cottrell