🚀 go-pugleaf

>the installation procedures are ok for a hard disk or dual
>floppy system, but are an incredible, frustrating pain on a single floppy
>(e.g. 1040stf) system.  multiple swaps *per file* are performed, and we're
>talking *lots* of files.  there is a lot of room for user confusion.  i 
>suspect that appropriate use of a ram disk at install time could make this
>much more reasonable, but this is not supported by their installer.  

	It's true that MWC's installer does not cater very well to
single-floppy users, but it's not that bad.  All it does is read a
file (used to be called install.dat in 1.1, I forget if the name's
been changed) and copy files accordingly:  it is straightforward to
set up a ramdisk (any ramdisk) and copy files from GEM according to the 
installation file (which can be printed out).   Just ignore the
installer!

>of brings up another issue, the appropriateness of this compiler for "small"
>systems, e.g. 520 with ss drives, either 520 or 1040 without a hard disk.
>single sided drives are supported, but i don't think i'd want to try it. and
>though work on a single floppy is supposedly possible, i haven't succeeded
>at the install yet, and even when i do succeed a lot of the convenience of
>having the msh commands and everything available at once will be impaired on
>a single disk system.

Hmm, I disagree.  I've used MWC very well on a one single-sided floppy
520 with 1 meg, and an appropriate ramdisk.  You have to use different 
floppies for the 1) shell& utilities, 2) compilation, and 3) linking, and you 
can't use Make, but that's about it.   I've managed to compile TVX (25K 
lines), Less, and all kinds of other stuff.  The main thing is to use a 
ramdisk for the sources.   For example, you could put some copy commands 
in the profile to create the /tmp, /bin etc. files on the ramdisk and copy
some of the utilities over.   1 Meg of memory is important though (so
you can have a nice big ramdisk)

	I fully agree with the rest of Tom's article, its a great
compiler/system.   Don't let the eccentricities of the installer, or
the hardware (or the lack thereof) get in the way of your enjoyment.


							-ravi
ps: no affiliations with MWC etc.