

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jean-Michel POURE [mailto:jm.poure@freesurf.fr] 
> Sent: 08 May 2002 09:37
> To: mlw; Dann Corbit
> Cc: PostgreSQL-development
> Subject: Re: OK, lets talk portability.
> 
> There is other issues :
> 
> 1) Cygwin installation.
> 
> Presently, Cygwin installer is a nice toy but it is primarily 
> designed for 
> hackers. In order to install PostgreSQL, you need to install 
> a minimum set of 
> packages. As no real dependency between packages exist, a 
> newbee will not 
> know which packages should be downloaded and which should 
> not. Also, Cygwin 
> installer does not allow the automatic installation of 
> PostgreSQL within a 
> service.
> 
> The result is that newbees eather download ***all*** Cygwin 
> packages or simply 
> say no. Furthermore, after installation, people are facing 
> another issue 
> which is the Unix world. Users have a hard time understanding 
> that PostgreSQL 
> configuration is stored in /var/lib/pgsql/...
> 
> So my personal opinion is that if PostgreSQL relies on the 
> present Cygwin 
> version, it has no chance to get a standard solution under Windows.

Agreed. I develop pgAdmin using cygwin/postgresql on my laptop and quite
frankly it's a pain in the neck. I did notice when playing with MySQL
recently that it appears to use Cygwin, though *only* the .dll, there is
no installation of Cygwin required. Perhaps if we could get to roughly
that stage it would be good. Of course we'd also need a few things from
/bin like sh for example.

If we can get it to this stage then I'm sure Jean-Michel and I could
come up with a nice installer that will allow us to keep the GPL & BSD
code nicely separate on a swerver somewhere & still allow an automated
download/install...
 
> 3) Existing version of PostgreSQL under Windows
> Did anyone test 
> http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA023283/Postgr> eSQLe.html

Downloaded it but haven't played yet (blame it on a cranky Exchange
server!).

Regards, Dave.

Thu, 9 May 2002 08:12:04 +0100
"Dave Page" <dpage@vale-housing.co.uk>
Re: OK, lets talk portability.
Le Jeudi 9 Mai 2002 09:12, Dave Page a écrit :
> If we can get it to this stage then I'm sure Jean-Michel and I could
> come up with a nice installer that will allow us to keep the GPL & BSD
> code nicely separate on a swerver somewhere & still allow an automated
> download/install...

This would be quite easy. But the problem is that we might need to rename 
Cygwin.dll in order to avoid conflicts. It may become a maintenance 
nightmare. This will not stop Cygwin from provinding PostgreSQL neither.

To my mind, the solution is to deliver all software needed (native Apache, 
native Python, Native OpenOffice, Cygwin layer, Dev-C++, pgAdmin2, 
Cygwin-KDE) within a SINGLE installer. See my previous mails.

Work is time-consuming. If I have to spend time on a project, this will be for 
getting rid of Microsoft hegemony, not the less.

Cheers,
Jean-Michel

Thu, 9 May 2002 10:16:15 +0200
Jean-Michel POURE <jm.poure@freesurf.fr>
Re: OK, lets talk portability.
On Thu, 2002-05-09 at 09:12, Dave Page wrote:
> 
> Agreed. I develop pgAdmin using cygwin/postgresql on my laptop and quite
> frankly it's a pain in the neck. I did notice when playing with MySQL
> recently that it appears to use Cygwin, though *only* the .dll, there is
> no installation of Cygwin required. Perhaps if we could get to roughly
> that stage it would be good. Of course we'd also need a few things from
> /bin like sh for example.

Are you sure sh and friends are absolutely needed ?

I'm sure we can replace most scripts with .bat files or just do without
them (tell peole to use CREATE DATABSE instead of createdb, etc.)

And instead of initdb we could just install ready-made $PGSQL/data
directory.

-----------
Hannu



09 May 2002 10:56:59 +0200
Hannu Krosing <hannu@tm.ee>
Re: OK, lets talk portability.
On Thursday 09 May 2002 04:56 am, Hannu Krosing wrote:
[snip other good ideas....]

> And instead of initdb we could just install ready-made $PGSQL/data
> directory.

 From experience with the RPMset I can tell you that this is a bad idea, and it 
comes down to one word:

upgrades.

Now if the installation location is _versioned_ we might can talk of a 
pre-populated $PGDATA.  I'm taking a really hard look right now at versioned 
installation locations for the RPMset -- you can then have more than one 
version installed at a time, and even running at one time if you're careful. 
I haven't implemented it yet, but I am taking a long hard look at what I 
would have to do in order to make it work.
-- 
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Thu, 9 May 2002 06:03:20 -0400
Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org>
Re: OK, lets talk portability.