Forum .LRN Q&A: Native Windows Installer for .LRN (Version 1.11)

1: Native Windows Installer for .LRN (Version 1.11)

Posted by Maurizio Martignano on 12/24/08 10:37 AM

Dear all,

I've just compiled version 1.11 (24th of December 2008) of Win32-OpenACS: an actual native Win32 port (no Cygwin, no VMware) of OpenACS.

Version 1.11 properly integrates thread2.6.5 as an Aolserver loadable module and contains some fixes produced by Gustaf Neumann, accommodating for the differences between Unix and Windows.

This version of Win32-OpenACS consists of the following components:
1. aolserver-4.5.0 - including
1.1 nscache 1.4
1.2 nssha1 1.1.1.1
1.3 nspostgres 4.1
1.4 nsoracle 2.7
2. tcl-8.5.5
3. tk-8.5.5
4. tDom-0.8.2
5. xotcl-1.6.2
6. thread-2.6.5
7. tcllib-1.10
8. postgresql-8.2.11-1
9. openacs-5.5.x (CVS Head of the 27/10/2008)
10. xowiki-1.0.3
11. dotlrn-2.4.1

The port can be obtained at the following URL:
http://www.friendlybits.com/en/inf_tec_en/win32openacs_en/

BTW: Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everybody!

Hope it helps,
Maurizio

2: Re: Native Windows Installer for .LRN (Version 1.11) (response to 1)

Posted by Gustaf Neumann on 12/25/08 06:47 AM

Maurizio, again thank you very much!

Short comment to my changes that Maurizio refers to: all of the tcl/xotcl-only code works nicely under windows. However, there are differences when it comes to calling external programs (calling shells, moving files, redirecting to /dev/null, etc.). In order to write portable code, one should avoid such calls (e.g. "mv" can be replace by "file rename", etc.) The changes Maurizio refers to are changes to install/upgrade from repository, where several external commands are used. With the fixes in cvs head, installing/upgrading from repository works now fine under windows.

I am pretty sure, there are sill some windows related issues in openacs. However, most of the code works perfectly under windows, the version is really usable (allthough we tested mostly xowiki and xowiki content flow)

A short warning: The new code is based of CVS head, which is not a stable release. Since the base version of Maurizio's release is CVS HEAD, upgrade from repository fetches as well code from CVS HEAD. So, please be careful, what files you are updating.

best regards
-gustaf neumann

3: Re: Native Windows Installer for .LRN (Version 1.11) (response to 2)

Posted by Maurizio Martignano on 12/25/08 07:20 AM

Dear Gustaf,
thanks a lot for you comments.
Starting with the beginning of next year (i.e. January/Febraury 2009) I plan to port to Windows a minimum subset of these external programs, so that OpenACS becomes truly usable also on Windows.

Cheers and thanks,
Maurizio

4: Re: Native Windows Installer for .LRN (Version 1.11) (response to 3)

Posted by Gustaf Neumann on 12/25/08 07:23 AM

I have noticed, that you include already gzip and tar, which are essential for the upgrade/install from repository. Without those, the support would not have been possible. It was a good idea to include those!

-gustaf