Hari Krishna Dara wrote:
I read your previous emails about your windows laptop being out and that
you prefer Linux etc., so I have a suggestion. Why don't you install
VMWare virtual server on your Linux box and have windows run just for
the builds? If you don't want to purchase a license, it is still easy to
get a free VM by using their free VMWare Player (you need to start from
an existing downloadable free VM's and format and reinstall Windows on
it). Several people have done this trick (ie, using VMWare player to
create new VMs) and you can find a number of blogs on the net.
What exactly is VMWare? Anything making my machine a server (accessible
from clients on the Net) is a no-no. I am vaguely thinking of installing
Wine just for the builds, but (a) I don't remember whether it requires a
"true" Windows OS, and (b) running Cygwin on top of Wine on top of Linux
strikes me as somewhat ridiculous. (The Windows compilation process
which I "understand" uses Cygwin and the Make_cyg.mak to produce a
"native-Windows" build by means of the "MinGW for Cygwin" compiler.) I
think I'll keep my HowTo pages up (so it'll be easier for people to
compile their own) and let Steve Hall distribute patched versions of Vim
for Windows (a job I took from him when it seemed to me that his builds
weren't forthcoming often enough). I hear that a self-installer for gvim
7.0.017 is currently available on his site; if he keeps it up there's no
reason for me to duplicate the work.
I have reserved space on my hard disk for a vfat partition, but that is
empty space for the time being. I don't see Windows on the market except
as OEM versions sold exclusively together with new computers, and I want
neither a pirated version nor something unacceptably costly...
OTOH, I'm not ready to distribute my "gvim for Linux" because I don't
feel like it is of acceptable quality for "public consumption" (no
Python, no MzScheme, no /dyn features...); but compiling on Linux is
remarkably easy (once the required "development" packages are installed)
so let's encourage Unix/Linux users to compile their own builds. That's
where my new HowTo for Unix comes into play. I hope it will be useful.
Best regards,
Tony.
