RESULT! (was: Re: Building on Windows from scratch - follow up)

[Wm Tarr]

On 28/04/2014 10:09, Geert Janssens wrote:

> Lastly, how to use my repository ?
> - Download the bootstrap_win_dev.vbs script. It has some documentation
> at the beginning. Running it is mostly a double-click. This will prepare
> a c:\gcdev directory with the minimal tools required to run install.sh
> - Start msys (c:\gcdev\mingw\msys\1.0\msys.bat)
> - cd /c/gcdev/gnucash-on-windows.git
> - install.sh

> Please test and provide feedback.
Wooooohoooo!

I think I may be the first reporting like this, if I am not then I 
happily join others who have reported success.

It works!  I am now proudly running
===
GnuCash 2.6.99
The GnuCash personal finance manager. The GNU way to manage your money!
This copy was built from git rev acad5a0+ on 2014-04-29
===

First my congratulations and thanks to Geert and anyone else that has 
worked on this.  I think you deserve a beer / coffee / beverage of 
choice for the amazing effort you must have put in.

I thank you, personally, and expect others will too once the 
significance of this becomes clear [1]

I do not exaggerate when I say that this experience is an order of 
magnitude different to the last time I attempted to build GnuCash under Win.

Note: only one real glitch (attempt to build svn) was encountered and 
has already been fixed (thanks for prompt attention, Geert).

Note regarding human interaction: a human needs to get involved in 
specifying gncdev/hh for the HTML Help, but because the build takes some 
time and the HH happens part way through I was busy doing something else 
when the licence, directory choice dialogue, etc. came up and dismissed 
them thinking they were to do with something else.  My suggestion is 
that if there are no other dependencies the
===
add_step inst_hh
===
is done right at the beginning / as soon as possible in install.sh while 
the human is still paying attention.  Everything after that will run by 
itself unless there is an error (in my experience).



Some timings for those interested.

12:48 downloaded bootstrap_win_dev.vbs and started it off
            (it wouldn't run by itself here so I started it in a console 
with cscript.exe <path-to-this-script> as mentioned in the script itself 
which worked fine)
18:58 I had a working GnuCash 2.6.99

that is 6 hours and 10 minutes and would have been less if I hadn't come 
across the svn problem (now fixed as mentioned above) and gone through 
the inst_hh section 3 times because I'm a dumb human and wasn't reading 
the instructions properly -- though my excuse is that inst_hh should be 
near the top because I'd have been paying attention then!  That is my 
excuse and I am sticking to it :)

Anyway, my last attempt to build GnuCash on Windows (some time ago) used 
to take around a day for each build attempt and never produced anything 
that I'd have shared with anyone else.  Today I have something that 
works and I'm looking at getting python bindings in next, i.e. I am 
thinking ahead already.

In case anyone thinks I've got really powerful kit, take a look at my specs:
===
TOSHIBA Satellite P30
Enclosure Type: Notebook

3.20 gigahertz Intel Mobile Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Hyper-threaded (2 total)

1280 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3
===

See? No bitcoins for me, BUT, I have built GnuCash!  I'd wager almost 
everyone reading this here has a more powerful system; but if you don't 
let us not get involved in a reverse pissing contest, my point is to say 
you don't need the best kit / latest Win to do this; in fact reading 
between the lines I think a more recent Win version might be a 
hindrance, but we won't know until other people, hopefully bolstered by 
this message start trying it out and reporting back.

[1]  I think the significance of building GnuCash on Win will be shown 
in a broadening of the number of people that will contemplate looking at 
code, testing here and there and so on.

I raise a glass of English cider to you all.

Good evening, best wishes and thanks

-- 
Wm