Installing a compiler by default

[Alan McKinnon]

On Thursday 08 June 2006 18:44, Matt Zimmerman wrote:

> I would like to propose that, beginning in Edgy, Ubuntu desktop
> systems (both live and installed) should, by default, include the
> set of packages necessary to compile simple C programs and Linux
> kernel modules.

I read the first 12 comments on Sounder, and some very good points 
were raised. I'd like to raise a POV that hasn't come up yet.

There are of course a huge variety of users that use Ubuntu, and with 
regard to compilers, we could consider there to be two main groups:

The geeks who would prefer to have a compiler installed by default.
The non-geeks who don't care what a compiler is.

I'm in the former group. I sudo apt-get install build-essential as one 
of the first steps I do after an install. It's not an issue, and many 
here are like me and don't make an issue about it either. It doesn't 
affect the latter group so it's a moot point.

These groupings are not static - if they were there wouldn't be a 
problem. The problem comes in when bright folks want to graduate from 
the latter to the former group. They read a howto on tldp.org and 
type ./config && make && make install and watch in dismay as the 
errors roll off the screen.

The actual problem is that they can't easily find the magic words:
sudo apt-get install build-essential
I know this is documented, and the docs are good. But this question 
still gets asked frequently on the lists, so the docs could be more 
visible.

I don't think a compiler installed or not installed by default is an 
important question - the package is right there on the CD along with 
tons of other useful stuff that isn't installed by default. The real 
question is more:

How do we easily bring it to the user's attention that they need to 
install a compiler, without getting in the user's face, and so we 
don't have to keep answering the same question over and over

One possibility is to install by default a small script called gcc 
that pops up a dialog saying a compiler is needed. Use dialog/ncurses 
on cli so it's obvious, and the gtk version could have a button that 
launches sudo apt-get. When the compiler is installed, it overwrites 
the script with an actual compiler.

-- 
If only me, you and dead people understand hex, 
how many people understand hex?

Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five