From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl
On 03/07/2026 19:00, Alan Grunwald wrote:
On 03/07/2026 17:39, Ralf Fassel wrote:
* Alan Grunwald <nospam.nurdglaw@gmail.com>
| If I install the Visual Studio C++ compiler a) It takes ages to start
| up and b) requires that I put sources etc. etc. in places that I would
| rather not have them.
I think there is a rather current makefile.vc in current TCL source
releases which should work from a VS cmd.exe.
| Ideally, I'd like to build under Cygwin and install to C:\tcl9.0.4, if
| I must, I'm happy to build under MSys and install to the same place.
We're building TCL/Tk in 'old' msys-1 bash and using the VS compiler:
- start a VS development cmd.exe to get the necessary environment
- in that, start msys bash
- in that:
-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a export CC=cl PATH=/c/windows/system32:$(PATH)
-a-a-a-acd $(TCLDIR)/win \
-a-a-a-a&& ./configure --enable-threads --disable-symbols --prefix .... -- >> enable-64bit \
-a-a-a-a&& make RC=rc STLIB_LD="link.exe -lib -nologo" SHLIB_LD="link.exe >> -dll -incremental:no -nologo \
-a-a-a-a&& make install install-private-headers
I would guess mingw on current msys2 should work even better with all
defaults...
HTH
R'
Thanks Ralf, I'll bear that in mind as an option.
Alan
Good Lord, it's TEN days later!
After confirming with Dell that I'd be able to install Windows since the licence key was saved on the motherboard, I ordered a 1TB drive to
replace the 1TB drive that had expired.[*]
A new disk duly arrived, only a day later than the suppliers promised as
UPS decided to inform me at the very last minute that they were going to deliver a day late. No apology, no information.
I installed the disk and the machine started to download things over the internet. (I was favourably impressed by this as I don't expect to be
able to do relatively sophisticated things like network downloads from
what I imagine to be the BIOS; I never had much intuition about hardware
and what intuition I might ever have had is probably 30+ years out of
date.) Sadly, partway through, something failed.
When I started the system after that, it no longer seemed interested in downloading anything.
I explained to Dell support (via email since any warranty period has now expired) that the machine just went into a cycle whereby it detected
that there was no bootable device and did I want to continue, and when I clicked continue it restarted and detected no bootable device... Support
was very sympathetic and gave every impression of trying to be helpful
but didn't actually manage to provide any help at all - particularly on
Friday afternoon after I'd said how useful it would be to be able to
make progress over the weekend. Sadly they were unable to provide useful answers to questions such as "How can I get the system to start
downloading things over the internet again", "How can I install Windows
10 on my machine" or "Please remind me how to format a disk from a DOS prompt".
Their latest message which arrived son after start of business on Monday suggested I send the machine back to them to fix and they'd return it to
me in typically 12-15 business days. (To be fair, they were going to
provide a box.)
At this point I decided I'd put Linux on the machine and have done with
it. Sadly, the WiFi extender required to reach the desktop at the other
end of the house (lots of thick walls, not enormous house!) has now
expired so I have the joy of chasing my broadband supplier to look
forward to tomorrow!
<rant over>
[*] Incidentally, Dell spares to whom the salesperson I first contacted
passed on the query came back quickly to say that the machine was beyond economic repair. I replied to the salesperson expressing sympathy with
her reaction that the spares team would say something like that to a
customer. To be fair to the spares department, their website doesn't
list anything smaller than a 16TB disk going for 1600 GBP, which is
rather a lot to spend to fix a machine that cost 650 GBP four years ago.
The repair looks much more economic when you find that 1TB disks are
available elsewhere for around 50 GBP.
Sorry, it seems I misspoke - rant really over now.
Alan
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