[OS X TeX] xindy problem

[Maarten Sneep]

On 27 jun 2004, at 22:37, Richard MAHONEY wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 27, 2004 at 12:29:44PM +0200, Maarten Sneep wrote:
>> On 26 jun 2004, at 17:09, Maarten Sneep wrote:
>>
>>> Installing Xindy involves compiling and installing (gnu)CLISP,
>>> combining the Xindy CLISP sources into a kernel (with the CLISP
>>> engine) and creating a format. I tripped at step 1.
>>
>> I've tried again, and as far as I can tell xindy is *broken*: it is in
>> a non-compiling state right now: you need to use an older clisp 
>> version
>> in order to use some modules needed by xindy, but that version will 
>> not
>> compile on Mac OS X. Newer versions of clisp do compile and pass the
>> tests, but the modules xindy uses expect a different API, and can
>> therefore not be included into the clisp engine.
>>
>> I'm giving up on xindy, it is a mess. BTW: from what I can tell from
>> the documentation: xindy uses the same tex commands as Makeindex, so
>> exectly what you can do with xindy that is impossible with Makeindex
>> (apart from using it with other document source formats, but the 
>> source
>> here is (la)tex anyway) is unclear to me. what you _can_ do with
>> Makeindex, and what is impossible with xindy is installing.
>>
>> It's a mess.
>
> Have you mailed your concerns to the maintainer ?

I've posted a request for help to the xindy mailing list, and Joachim 
responded.
The binaries that are available were compiled in 2000 or thereabout. I 
received the
version number of clisp they used, and I'm about to try that one. If 
that fails,
I will vent onto that mailing list.

Maarten
-- 
The reply from the XindY mailing list:
>
>> MS> I've been trying to get Xindy to run on Mac OS X. This means
>> MS> compiling clisp, and integrating the modules. As is explained on
>> MS> your web-page: this is impossible right now, as some of the
>> MS> required modules expect a different API than is offered by the
>> MS> current clisp.
>>
>> MS> Does that mean that the build of xindy is broken? Could I try an
>> MS> older clisp release?
>
> On Linux and Solaris, CLISP 2.24 is most probably used.
>
> Actually, I really don't know how hard it will be. I know that CLISP
> 2.31 introduced a new foreign function interface (FFI), and afterwards
> reports dropped in that one cannot build the xindy run time engine
> (RTE) from source. I only had a brief look and don't know where it is
> really broken -- please note that my cursory look didn't reveal
> obvious problems, the used CLISP FFI declarations were still
> documented. In fact, they are still documented in current CLISP
> versions; I just spend an hour browsing the documentation there and
> checking the current state of affairs.
>
> Since I didn't want to delve in that problem, I just reported the
> issue on the Web site. Perhaps you can elaborate what really goes
> wrong when you try to follow Thomas Henlich's build report, using
> CLISP 2.30? Compilation errors? Link errors?
>
>> MS> How do _you_ create the binary releases?
>
> I create them by compiling the xindy source with the available RTE,
> and add the xindy modules. My current work is focused on the
> ready-to-run end-user issue and on working xindy modules, not on new
> RTEs. This will change when I have sorted out the current issues and
> will work on a Windows port and better Unicode support, but I'm not
> quite ready for that yet.
>
> I think Thomas Henlich created the current RTEs in 2000, the one's
> that I'm using now. His report how he created them is on the Web site.
> Perhaps he may elaborate which CLISP version he was using -- as I
> said, I suspect it's 2.24 since the output of the
> LISP-IMPLEMENTATION-VERSION function fits to that release.
>
> Cheers,
> 	Joachim

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