Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!super.upenn.edu!linc.cis.upenn.edu!brant
From: brant@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Brant Cheikes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: binary Gnu Emacs distribution for Unix PC
Message-ID: <1855@super.upenn.edu>
Date: Tue, 25-Aug-87 11:03:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: super.1855
Posted: Tue Aug 25 11:03:52 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Aug-87 06:28:34 EDT
Sender: news@super.upenn.edu
Reply-To: brant@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Brant Cheikes)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 67
Keywords: Gnu Emacs UNIXPC PC7300 3B1

I received the following letter concerning Unix PC Gnu Emacs:

---------- Begin letter
From: moss!genesis!dhn@rutgers.edu
Date: Tue 25 Aug 1987 09:39 EDT
Subject: GNU Emacs for the UNIX pc ...

Hello,

I caught your posting on having a working version of GNU emacs for
the UNIX pc and an idea came to me.  One of the reasons why many
UNIX pc owners don't run GNU emacs is that you need > 10 MB of free
storage to build the thing.  Ideally interested persons should be
able to pull GNUmacs off The STORE as a binary, installable entity.
Don't you think ?!?

Since you have gone through the trouble already would you consider
putting together a binary distribution ?   By judicious use of compress
and Shared Libraries it should be possible to make the thing a reasonable
size.   Please give it some thought.  If you need any help with either
setting up an installable (STORE type) package or with getting the thing
to build with Shared Libraries just give a yell.


					Thanks,

					David Nochlin

Formerly:				| Currently:
UNIX and Executive Workstations Dept.	| Medical Diagnostic Systems
Product Engineering Group		| Medical Diagnostic Imaging Group
AT&T Informations Systems Labs		| AT&T Bell Laboratories
( The people who brought you the 	| HR 2E-004
  UNIX pc !!! )				| Middletown, NJ
---------- End letter

I have looked the Gnu Emacs distribution over, and it seems that I
could put together a binary distribution with relative ease, and it
would require somewhere between 1 and 2 Mb of disk storage.

However, I posted a suggestion similar to Nochlin's several weeks ago
and received no response.  I thus inferred no interest.  Is that still
the case?  If there's enough interest, I'd be happy to do it.

I can only foresee one problem.  I am running V3.51 of everything, and
I know that the Gnu Emacs I had built under 3.5 had to be rebuilt
under 3.51 (it was really weirding out on me).  I suspect the problem
lies in the way Gnu memory image gets dumped out, and that we could
get around the problem by distributing the compiled "raw" Gnu and let
people dump out their own executables (development kit not required
for that, and the procedure is automated in the Makefile).  Otherwise,
it would be necessary to distribute different versions for 3.5 and
3.51, since judging from the sentiment on the net, AT&Ts marketing
"strategy" with regard to the 3.51 upgrade is not encouraging people
to update their systems.  And then it's possible that the dumped
images will still not work on any memory configuration.

But hey, I'm willing to try if there's interest.  Respond directly to
me if you'd like to see a binary Gnu Emacs distribution.

Of course, the question I fear this will raise is: "what's Gnu Emacs
and why should I bother with it?"  That, of course, is an extended
article in itself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brant Cheikes                                      University of Pennsylvania
ARPA: brant@linc.cis.upenn.edu               Computer and Information Science
=============================================================================