PGCC/GCC, GD package and Chart extensions

[skyliner]

[...huh, first post at your place]

Hi everybody,

Just spent nearly two (midnight) hours installing Lincoln Stein's GD module and Bonner's Chart extension (should I call it frontend?) at my new site with FQ. Both packages would not install with default setup. Born and brought up in front of a Windows box, I had to spend some time figuring out what was wrong. It seems the default setup tried to call PGCC to compile the sources, and added some fancy PentiumPro optimization switches along. The install script would fail as PGCC could not be located (tried to do it manually with whereis, no results). Finally tried replacing references to PGCC with GCC and removing these suspicious looking PentiumPro optimization switches. It worked http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif . (Which surprised me a lot - never had a chance to meet this beast PGCC/GCC before; never programmed in C/CPP as well, never even used a make utility before). Some crude results (a 'Hello, World' type) may be accessed at

http://www.balticmarkets.com/cgi-bin/chart_test.cgi

Here come the questions, however:

1. I believe FQ website tells us PGCC (whatever it might be) is available. However, my troubles were caused by not being able to access PGCC. What did I do wrong? (action took place on the six.futurequest.net server)

2. GD package is somewhat popular out there; they say it is included with recent Perl distributions. I found it preinstalled at the other account I have with Tabnet (yes, I'm going to move it to FQ once it expires); but here at FQ I had to install it by myself (no easy task for a banking/finance student, but nobody's complaining, it was a challenge). The question is, when do we get GD as a part of standard setup at FQ (I have another domain account which might need GD support, and I'd hate to repeat the installation pains http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif )?

3. As I've mentioned, I used gcc to compile the GD sources instead of pgcc. No PentiumPro optimization then, as far as I understand. Is there any significant difference in performance? Should I try to gain access to pgcc and recompile or just forget it and live with the gcc-compiled version?

Enough for the first time http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif. Greetings from distant Lithuania.

Respectfully,
Aldas Kirvaitis
--
office@nospam.metasite.net - (cut out the nospam. portion when emailing)

[Terra]

Hello skyliner, welcome to the forums...

1) Serious lack of documentation here... I will have to do a write-up about pgcc for our FQuest FAQ forum... The adjustments to utilize pgcc are not that difficult... It was brought online primarly for FQuest internal usage, and for those developers that were already familiar with this particular compiler... As such, our technical support for it will be limited, but we will point you in the right direction... http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif Give me a few days to find some time to write up cursory usage documentation...

2) Hmmm, I thought I had that Perl module installed... Consider your request heard - I will get GD compiled and installed into the core Perl module library... I did have the GD C library installed, but that was for the PHP3 project...
(*we do take requests for Perl modules, just email support@FutureQuest.net and state which module and for how it will be utilized)

3) I have recompiled 85% of all FQuest primary engines, and 40% of all secondary engines with pgcc... The rest is either base RedHat 5.2 packages (ease of maintenance), or tweaked programs that just can't handle the high optimizations... I have gotten (real world), on average, about 15% - 25% improvements overall at the expense of increased memory requirements...

--
Terra
--The solution to any problem, is almost always another problem--
FutureQuest.net

[Terra]

The Perl GD-1.18 module has been pgcc compiled and installed into the Perl 5.005 core module library...

--Terra