1.3 Generalities about the Rosetta CDs

The first idea was to make an unique CD, usable as well under Linux as under Windows, with a maximum number of files in common. It was not possible, for reasons of size: the version for Linux occupies a complete CD. In fact, it would not have been possible either, at least in a first step, for technical reasons: first of all, some CAS (computer algebra systems) exist under Linux but not under Windows, and vice versa. For example, Aldor is only available under Linux and MuPAD Studio under Windows. Then, some software are available in different versions depending on the OS (operating system). For example, Maxima, in the original distribution of W. Schelter, is available in the version 5.6 for Linux and in the version 5.5 for Windows. At last, even when a software is available in the same version under the two OS, some files differ by the date and/or the size, so that it is not easy to know if the differences are about the contents (different versions of files depending to the OS) or only on the form (use of CR+LF as separator of lines under Windows, and use of LF under Linux). The possibility to achieve a common directory structure usable at the same time under Linux and Windows, is therefore a long-term objective.

Another important difference between the version for Windows and the version for Linux of the CD Rosetta comes from the fact that most Linux distributions contain Emacs, Xemacs, TeX, Xdvi, Ghostscript and the standard GNU utilities, so that these programs are not included in the CD Rosetta for Linux. These software are indispensable to a lot of CAS to edit (Emacs, Xemacs) the programs written in their programming language and to visualize (TeX, Xdvi, Ghostscript) the resulting mathematical formulas. As they are not distributed with Windows, they have been added to the CD Rosetta for Windows. They have been borrowed to the AsTeX distribution.

A last difference comes from the fact that the sources of the programs have not been included in the version for Windows, insofar as they are already included in the version for Linux. The latter having been recorded with the extensions Rock Ridge and Joliet, the users of Windows should be able to read most Unix long file names correctly on the Cd Rosetta for Linux. However, no verification has been made that all the names of the source files are seen identically under Windows and Linux, nor that the binaries for Windows can be constructed from these sources.

For the future, it would be desirable to make converge the versions for Linux and Windows so that, when they are installed on the hard disk of a PC with dual boot (i.e. that can function under Linux and Windows) they can share a maximum of files and therefore occupy a minimum of room on the hard disk. Of course, it will be possible to do that only in collaboration with the authors of the software included on the CD.