Hi Mike, Am Sun, 22 Feb 2004 08:37:19 -0500, schrieb Mike: > I've loaded FInk & FInk Commander on a MAC Powerbook G4 running > Panther and have to say that it has taken the better part of 2 - > 2.5 hrs to simply load and compile the application(s). As well, > when I attempted to load KDE it took the machine more than 4 hrs > to load and then to try to compile the applications which all > eventually bombed. Is this the normal experience? > > Just FYI it would be helpful if the user was prompted as to the > file size of the various components prior to load and compile so > that the user can make a useful decision as to whether to proceed > or not.
Giving informations about the size is something for which you would have my support if only it would be so easy to realise. With every new update the package size changes, sometimes it grows, sometimes it shrinks and so you need a script or something similiar that everytime reads out the current size of the package but this would only be the easiest part of it since you cannot really determine how long it will take to download a package when you know its size. Some other factors play a more or less important role in this "game" as well. E.g. how fast your ISP is connected to the next backbone and how fast the backbone network itsself is, how fast the FTP Server from which you are trying to download is connected to the backbone network that your provider uses etc etc. Not to forget how fast you are connected. MSN and other big companies try this on their webpages but for me this informations are wrong. Sometimes here in germany a download from an FTP Server in Stuttgart or Heidelberg lasts longer then downloading the same file from an FTP Server in the U.K. or the U.S. and both city are geographicly not that far from where I live. What slows down downloads too is how many users are connected to the FTP Server. 100 connected users slow down a FTP Server but think about 1000+ or say 200-500 which was the limit in Mainz where I studied. You may think 500 is a big number? The size would only be a better hint but not really helpfull. Further on you cannot guess from the size of the source tarball how long it will take to compile a package. The source code of OpenOffice.org here has nearly two to three Gigabytes and compiling takes eight hours at is worst. Some TexDistributions or the bundle-gnome Desktop or Xfree take compared to the size of the sourcecode longer then OOo. How long compiling takes is mainly determined by the speed of the processor and how good the code is optimized for the processor and how the compiler itsself is optimized for the processor on which he runs. I hope I explained it all without bad mistakes. If so let me know and correct me. As good as your suggestions may be, the more or less unrealistic they are. They would only allow to give hints that more or less are pure speculation. Regards, Eric Hoch -- ## Ansprechpartner Anwenderunterst�tzung, users-Mailingliste ## War unsere Hilfe erfolgreich? Bitte teilen Sie es uns mit. Danke. ## de.OpenOffice.org - Office f�r MacOS X, Linux, Solaris & Windows ## Netikette? http://www.eschkitai.de/openoffice/netikette.html ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net is sponsored by: Speed Start Your Linux Apps Now. Build and deploy apps & Web services for Linux with a free DVD software kit from IBM. Click Now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id56&alloc_id438&op=click _______________________________________________ Fink-beginners mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-beginners
