Re: Trying to get PackMan to install GCC

Martin Bazley <martin.bazley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

Incidentally, when I first switched on my ARMini, its default hard disc
layout was an unholy mess, and I couldn't find anything. In extreme
cases, there were identical copies of the same application in different
directories. NetSurf, for example, went in both 'Internet' and 'Network',
and I think I found StrongHelp in both 'Text' and 'Utilities' - and there
were a lot of other fine-grained distinctions such as these in the root
directory names, mostly nearly empty, with non-duplicated programs
apparently randomly distributed between all places in which they might
conceivably be located. I'm wondering whether I should point the finger
at the sole occupant of $.Apps.Admin, one !RiscPkg.

If Vince's hard disc is still in 'mint condition' (I've rather extensively
fixed mine), perhaps he could grant further insight?

As luck would have it, because it's taken me so long to actually set it up
in its proper place, I've not actually yet done anything about re-organising
it how I would like it, so the layout is pretty much as supplied (other than
the few uses I've made over the last week or so of package managers for the
purpose of this discussion, and the copies of my own stuff I put on it way
back to try them out).

Looking at mine - which is certainly not how I'd organise it myself -
compared to what you describe above, the default layout must have changed
somewhere between my purchase and yours, because it's nowhere near as messy
as you describe: For example, I only have a 'Network' folder, and not an
'Internet' one (note: I usually do have both - but 'Network' contains things
I normally use in the context of my LAN, 'Internet' contains things I
normally use on the internet). With all of the directories open in which
apps have been put by default, no duplications jump out at me at all.

One issue, though, is that !RiscPkg is there, in Apps.Admin - meaning
anything it installs would go in a subdirectory in Apps (eg when I installed
!Noughts the other day, it went in Apps.Games). However, almost all of the
apps supplied by default are a level up, in the root directory, alongside
Apps. So if I was to use !RiscPkg to install !WinEd, for example, I'd find
it in $.Apps.Development (thanks to !RiscPkg) as well as $.Develop (thanks
to the default install).

[...]

It's also worth remembering that I tend to use subdirectories to
reduce clutter like that: Different types of game in different
subdirectories (sticking to the games example). The current packaging
system doesn't allow that: If the package maintainer says it goes in
'Games' it goes in 'Games'.

This is another example of how the system was lifted from Linux with
little or no thought given to just how different RISC OS's installation
paradigm is to the Linux one. Have you ever looked inside a /bin/
directory?

No - but I don't use Linux. I don't know how apps are launched on Linux, but
I'm guessing that - unlike the usual RISC OS model - the user doesn't
typically navigate to the directory containing the application in order to
run it, and probably launches applications from some kind of launcher
(perhaps akin to the Start menu on Windows?).

[...]

--
Soft Rock Software: http://www.softrock.co.uk
Vince M Hudd: http://misc.vinceh.com/about-vinceh/
RISCOSitory: http://www.riscository.com
.

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