GS on Windows installation report

[Stefan Urbanek]

Hello,

Here is a short report of gnustep installation attempt on MS windows. I
was trying to be a bit ignorat while installing it and I did not RTFM. I
will use 'hints' to denote where I used my knowledge for the unobvious
things.

Ok, before I started I visited the www.gnustep.org page where I was
trying to find the installation instructions for the GNUstep on windows.
I followed: Getting Started -> Setting up -> GNUstep Installation ->
Windows -> README.mingw and the result was:

"Sorry, the document you requested does not exist or has been moved. Try
navigating from the home page to find what you want"

Then I returned to the home page and downloaded the GNUstep
installer .exe file and run it. OK, Accept, OK, OK ... Finish. Result
was that I have seen nothing, neither icon on the desktop (would be nice
for new users, even it is annoying for experienced users). Nothing
serious, I found it in the Start menu under GNUstep, however the icon
was some blue M with MSys label, so I was a bit uncertain whether it is
what i want. I launched it and got a terminal. What to do now? I have
terminal only - perhaps something went wrong?

Then I reinstalled the GNUstep with "build from sources" - i do not know
what was the difference. Same result: terminal. Ok, perhaps it should be
like that.

Hint 1: It is only make + base. (Not obvious)

I need to get GUI. I downloaded sources from GNUstep home page. Where to
unpack them?

Hint 2: GNUstep/Development/Sources
Hint 3: I should know how to unpack sources and build it from terminal
Hint 4: I need also the back package

./configure for gui failed. Some strange error and note about missing
libjpeg. Next steps were googling for libjpeg and downloading sources. I
have installed them.

Hint 5: I need libtiff too.

Having libtiff and libjpeg installed i tried ./configure in -gui again.
Same error. The libraries were not installed correctly, so gnustep can
find them. Neither --with option worked.

Giving up.

Hint 6: There is README.MinGW file with instructions somewhere.

I was looking in many Documentation and module root directories. Finally
it was in make. Why it is in -make? How I was expected to know that it
will be there?

In the README i learn:

Get these binary packages (or later versions) from -
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/tiff-3.5.7-lib.zip
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/tiff-3.5.7-bin.zip
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/libjpeg-6b-lib.zip
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/libjpeg-6b-bin.zip
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/zlib-1.1.4-lib.zip
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32/zlib-1.1.4-bin.zip


Huh? Which one? There are two of each. Ah, one is source the other is
binary. Ok, I get the binaries. In the archves there were folders
like /bin. What to do with that? No install.exe, no instructions.

Hint 7: put it in msys root (where it is?)

I have located the msys root and put it there. Again: ./configure in
-gui, same error.

Giving up second time.

Conclusion: 
- Instructions for Windows are not available on the home page and they
are quite hidden
- Instructions for Windows are wrongly located in gnustep-make
- There were too many unobvious things while installing

What would be the proper installation instructions for GNUstep on
windows similar to "Visit the www.gnustep.org page and download this or
that. Run the installation program. Find GNUstep icon in Start and run
it. You are done and ready to run apps."?

Stefan Urbanek
-- 
http://stefan.agentfarms.net

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then
you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi