[ADMB Users] Open ADMB for Windows with MinGW

[Gabor Grothendieck]

The criteria seem to be:

- effortless install

- it should be as native Windows-like as possible and not a UNIX
procedure that was ported to Windows.  It should not retain UNIX-like
behavior.  Note that true Windows procedures often copy the software
to c:\Program Files\... but normally don't copy files to the system directory
(that would be too intrusive) or set up environment variables.  Instead of
environment variables they use the registry.

- not modify the system (i.e. registry, environment variables) so the
software can run portably off a USB drive.   Unfortunately this criterion
conflicts with the last.

I think the way to do it is for the setup program to add the
ADMB folder to the path and add a registry key but allow
the user to bypass both these steps if they desire a portable
installation.

On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 1:24 PM, dave fournier <davef at otter-rsch.com> wrote:
> Schnute, Jon wrote:
>
> I think that if a new user has the ocmpiler correctly installed then
> they should be able to
> simply install the admb software  by running an exe and then change to a
> comman window and say somethihkg like.
>
>           admb simple
>
>            simple
>
> and have everything just work.  this can be done with the inno installer
> so that all the differences between
> compilers are hidden from the user. except for the compiler it should
> not be necessary to add any more software.
> the reason that tpl2cpp or tpl2rem was looking for cat is that is was
> the mingw32 version which  was originally intended
> for cygwin whihc has these tools. the "true" windows version uses   copy
> instead of cat.
>
> It is really only necessary to have one verion of tpl2cpp and tpl2rem
> for windows and another for Linux
> so that part should be removed from the build of each version and just
> copied into the bin file.  Is is necessary to
> have a copy of sed.exe for whihc I use a mingw version. I have had
> better luck with mingw32 than with cygwin when moving to 64bit XP.
>
> However it is important to be able to use more than one compiler on the
> same machine.
> first consider how to set up the effortless install  I mentioned above.
> I think the best way is to have the installer define a (global)
> environment string like ADMB_HOME to
> point to the directory where admb is installed. To run the software the
> shell script admb.bat is copied to the
> system directory know as {sys} to the Inno installer.  It can figure out
> where this shold be for different
> version of windows. for example something like c:\winnt\system32.  this
> is already on the users path
> so that it will be found when the user types in  admb  simple
> the user may have to reboot to get the command shell window to "see" the
> new ADMB_HOME,
> but windows users are used to rebooting.
>
> If the installation detects that the user already has ADMB_HOME defined
> and/or admb.bat in {sys}
> it can use a variant such as a compiler specific name such as
> ADMB_VC8_HOME  and admb_vc8.bat
> It should of course notify the user that there is already one version of
> ADMB installed and that it is doing the curretn install in this way.
>
> this works for different compilers so long as the compler shell command
> are different. for example for vc++
> is is cl.exe for borland it is bcc32.exe and for mingw32 it is gcc and g++.
>
> If one needs say two different versions of g++ one can find the bin
> directory conatining it and do a copy
>
>     copy "g++.exe"  "g++421.exe"
>
> and use g++421 in the admb_gcc421.bat file.
>
>     Dave
>
>
>
>> I've spent most of today experimenting with the new release of ADMB for
>> Windows with MinGW. I'm pleased to report that it works, but not without
>> a few difficulties. The attached report explains exactly what happened.
>> In particular, Step 5 resolves the problem with "cat" reported by Tony
>> Booth earlier today.
>>
>> Hopefully, everyone who gets this message will also get the attached PDF
>> file. If you have problems, let me know and I can send it again.
>>
>> Please note that I have two questions for which I'd like answers.
>> Probably you compiler gurus can answer Question 1 instantly. I hope the
>> ADMB Project gurus think carefully about my Question 2 because it points
>> the way toward contributions that users can make, even at this early
>> stage before the source code can be released.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Jon
>>
>> ******************************************
>> Jon Schnute, Scientist Emeritus
>> Pacific Biological Station
>> 3190 Hammond Bay Road
>> Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N7
>> CANADA
>>
>> NEW email: Jon.Schnute at dfo-mpo.gc.ca
>>  (formerly schnutej at pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca)
>> ******************************************
>>
>
>
> --
> David A. Fournier
> P.O. Box 2040,
> Sidney, B.C. V8l 3S3
> Canada
> Phone/FAX 250-655-3364
> http://otter-rsch.com
>
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