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Thanks very much.<br>
Of course, you did not expect for one second that, other than lollipop,
I would understand one word of your response?<br>
However, I have forwarded it to my friend who once explained to me what
a lollipop was. Sorry. I meant a p-list. Moreover, if <i>I</i> insist
on a Gui—my interest not being in programming, the stuff he has
written, mostly for "local" use, has always had minimal Gui and that
mostly because <i>I</i> was going to be among those going to <i>use</i>
it. Now <i>that </i>is a friend don't you think?<br>
If there is documentation, albeit not for teaching, I am sure that he
will make do.<br>
<br>
So, again, thanks and let us see what he will do.<br>
But, I am afraid, no holding one's breath.<br>
<br>
Still, could, and would anyone propose an idea for a small i-package?
(Like a doctoral advisor suggesting a thesis for a dissertation. But
with <i>no </i>pestering afterward.)<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
--schremmer<br>
<br>
Gerben Wierda wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid31830.159.46.248.218.1086077291.squirrel@mail.rna.nl">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Gerben Wierda wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">It would be nice of more people would write i-Packages. It is not that
difficult.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
I have an old colleague and friend, mac fanatic, whom I am trying to get
involved in OpenSource. Contrary to me, he has written code (in C++) but
when I tried to get him interested in writing panels such as Latex and
Matris panels in TeXshop, thinking that would be a /finite/ task, he
almost swore he would never ever talk to me again. Eventually, he showed
me an article in MacTech in which Cocoa was said to be quite a bit less
than friendly or whatever.
How about i-packages? Is there a reference somewhere on how to do this
and what it involves that I could recommend he read? (I don't want no
trouble.)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
There is a learning curve. As there is for Cocoa. Remember Alan Perlis and
the lollipop ;-) (I always thought that quote was from Knuth, but
according to a page I found it isn't) Not as steep a curve, but the
documentation such as there is is not written for teaching purposes, so
you need to get it from me.
It seems you and your friend (given his somewhat explosive nature) better
not get involved until the process has been documented better and maybe
there is a GUI tool for it. For those who are interested in doing some
reverse engineering:
The process itself is simple. You need to create a basic property list for
the package, and put the stuff (like configure scripts, bzipped tar
archives with the software) in a directory with .ii2 extension and then
call the provided script with both the name of the .ii2 directory and the
basic property list. The script then creates a new property list inside
the .ii2 directory which becomes the package table of contents.
The problem is writing the basic property list. For the simplest packages,
they are about 800 bytes (very small, very simple, just containing a few
basic items like the default URL, the install location, if it is
relocatable, if it needs authentication, etc.), for a package like TeX
which is horrendously complicated with sets, parts, dependencies inside
and outside, it is 13kB.
The basic source code for my i-Packages can be downloaded from my
SourceForge site. Comes with Makefiles galore.
G
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</pre>
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