Re: [Chicken-users] Installing chicken on windows

[Matt Welland]

On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 9:52 AM, John Cowan <address@hidden> wrote:

Dan Leslie scripsit:

> It reads to me like Chicken needs an automated builder for the Windows
> package.

It's not very clear how beneficial this is, since in order to use the
compiler, you'll need gcc and gmake anyway.  (If you just want a Scheme
interpreter, there are probably better choices than Chicken, though it
does have some nice eggs.)

To use the chicken-iup installer you first install mingw. Two straight forward, easy installs; mingw and chicken-iup, give you:

 - chicken-scheme with a bunch of pre-installed eggs including the IUP gui, sql-de-lite and so forth.

 - start csi from an icon

 - ability to compile to executable.

For someone interested in learning Chicken or in creating cross platform applications using scheme I think chicken-iup or a similar installer is a godsend. It is not all that easy to install chicken and IUP is a real pain to install. IUP is the only comprehensive, modern looking, seamless, cross-platform gui toolkit for chicken that I know of. In my opinion providing a super-low barrier to entry installer for chicken scheme makes it far more attractive to folks wanting to explore and try it. Most of the developers and users seem to be super-gurus who think nothing of the hacking it takes to get an install going. For us regular folk however this barrier can be a show stopper. I guess if the sentiment is that beginners are a pain for the community then you could make a solid argument for NOT making it too easy to install chicken :)

Oh, as an aside, it would be fantastic to have IUP be just as easy to install on Linux/Unix. Sadly this is not the case. I have not surveyed the GUI toolkit world recently. Is there a better alternative available for Chicken now?

 

--
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        address@hidden
Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory
that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia.
        --blurb for Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi