Re: [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 _______________________________________________ Gretl-users mailing list Gretl-users(a)lists.wfu.edu http://lists.wfu.edu/mailman/listinfo/gretl-users