John Chambers wrote:
>Frank Nordberg wrote:
>| James Allwright wrote:
>| > Unless it has changed radically since I last looked, it is a source code
>| > distribution that will compile and run on anything with a C compiler...
>|
>| That's really great, but there's still a minor problem.
>|
>| One of the basic ideas behind ABC is that it's for everyone, and - as
>| hard as it is for us to believe - there is, even today, a small minority
>| of computer users that feel slightly uneasy when asked to compile the
>| software themselves...
>
>Great! Someone provides a program that solves the problem of binary
>incompatibility by supplying the source in ANSI C. Several people
>report compiling it on various obscure systems without any problems.
>So the programmer gets criticised for writing a program that needs to
>be compiled.
>
>Ya sure can't win at this game. ;-)
Nobody's criticising the author of the program. However, the explosion
in computer use over the past few years has mainly come about as the
result of GUI interfaces like Windows and MacOS which don't require
users to mess with the works. Most users don't understand the difference
between source and object code and wouldn't have a clue what to do with
a C compiler. Neither do they want to learn - they are not interested
in computers per se, only in what they can do with them.
This is not just a problem for technophobes either. I once spent a
whole day trying to install gcc on a Silicon Graphics Indy, eventually
giving up in disgust and trashing the whole thing. I just don't have
the time to mess with a system which only delivers incomprehensible
error messages. I still have the machine, but the only software on
it is stuff which is obtainable in binary form.
>(I have been tempted to translate abc[m]2ps to perl, just for the
>yuks, and for extra portability. Then it wouldn't have to be
>compiled. But I bet I'd get flamed because perl doesn't come
>pre-installed on all possible computer systems. ;-)
Sure. Most MacOS users can't even use AppleScript (which has to be the
world's easiest scripting language) let alone perl.
It's a simple fact of life that no Mac user is going to be able to
use abcm2ps until I, or Wil Macauley or somebody else who knows how
to do it compiles it for them and hands out the binary.
Phil Taylor
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