[pylucene-dev] About compiling with gcc 4.2

[Andi Vajda]

On Thu, 23 Nov 2006, David Pratt wrote:

> Hi Greg, Andi has been pretty much been single-handedly helping everyone on 
> this list with very good and timely advice. I think you are a bit off base 
> with your comments. Admittedly, the compile time is long - but PyLucene 
> itself is real software ingenuity - and it also takes what it takes to 
> compile. I am sure Andi would not turn down binaries from folks who have 
> taken time to compile on various platforms.

For various reasons, I cannot provide binary downloads built by other people 
but I have no objections to adding links to them on the PyLucene homepage.

Andi..

> As far as documentation, pick up a copy of 'Lucene in action' which is an 
> excellent resource. All the workable code from the book is included in the 
> PyLucene sources and there is plenty to read in the samples. If you look at 
> the archives of this list you will find plenty in the way of discussion on 
> the quirks of various builds and platforms over time - most of which Andi has 
> captured in the Makefile as these were reported.
>
> This is a young project and the evolution of compilers, which are complex, 
> certainly adds to the mix. I would not take this as disregard for your 
> platform or project, but more as evolution that takes time. Your need to be 
> patient with gcc and gcj as they evolve - or contribute to solutions to fix 
> them. If you are asking for assistance, come with some appreciation of the 
> effort that has gone into this software and the folks behind it.
>
> I am sure as time goes on there will eventually ports and packages on various 
> platforms once there is some real stability. As an example, binaries of jdk 
> are now being maintained as part of FreeBSD's ports collection. I would see 
> some opportunity to distribute safe binaries further down the road. That 
> said, folks will need to step up to maintain a port or package for their 
> distribution system when that time arrives.
>
> Right now, we ought be thankful that builds of PyLucene on gcc-4.2 (beta) are 
> beginning to succeed on certain platforms (since that last time this happened 
> was gcc-3.4.6 for most part).
>
> Regards,
> David
>
>
> Greg Kuperberg wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 10:44:12AM -0800, Andi Vajda wrote:
>>> In any case, it's not that hard to build yourself, it takes a few hours 
>>> depending on the speed of your system.
>> 
>> I have to say that a few hours is not a very good standard for
>> installing software such as PyLucene.  I am used installing software
>> in a few minutes.  When I can't use yum, apt-get, or rpm, I am used to
>> the three-line installation procedure, "configure; make; make install".
>> Indeed, a configuration script is an important intermediate step that
>> makes it easier for other people to make RPM packages and Debian packages.
>> I have been using Unix for 20 years, admittedly more as a user than
>> as a developer, and I have never been very happy with hand-configuring
>> Makefiles.
>> 
>> Moreover, in this case I depend on PyLucene for a project that I may
>> want to "sell" to other people.  Part of the sell is going to be that
>> it isn't too hard for them to install.
>> 
>> PyLucene is an important project.  It is a bridge between Python,
>> which is monumentally important, and Lucene, which is also important.
>> When PyLucene works, it works really well, because Lucene is more
>> complete and more scalable than many alternatives.  PyLucene is also
>> faster than Lucene itself.  That said, I think that the difficult of
>> installing PyLucene, and maybe also the haphazard documentation, are
>> the main shortcomings of the project right now.  I think that you could
>> multiply your user base by 10 if you concentrated on documentation and
>> installation for a while.
>> 
>> If OSAF has other priorities for PyLucene or for your time otherwise,
>> then you have every right to point that out.  On the other hand, Chandler
>> itself is supposed to be for user-friendly collaboration.  It's strange
>> for them not to care more about cross-Unix installation.
>> 
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