Last week a freshman shared his sorrows of not having gcc on his Windows computer. When I helped him, I was surprised to know he actually tried MSYS2, without success. I then walked him through all necessary steps to get MSYS2 up to speed for his first year in computer science.
Suggestion 1
Add a checkbox on the installer called: "Install tools for C and C++ noobs", which will install a couple of tools, for several environments, even if opinionated or excessive:
- toolchain group
- git
- vim
- GNU make
- cmake
- man-db
- posix-man-pages
- freeglut
- curl
- 7zip
- etc.
Because this checkbox will install many packages, the installer should warn so about additional weight, Internet connection requirement and tell the user to uninstall unused packages if he feels like it one day.
Suggestion 2
Although the user can search on Windows for "clang" and the correct environment will open, if the user searches for "gcc", no results yield. "gcc" could be placed between parenthesis for the start menu shortcut after the environment title when appropriate. Further, if the user happens to enter the purple environment instead of the blue environment, and he tries to use gcc, instead of "bash: gcc: command not found", it could tell the user that he is on the wrong environment and he should open the blue or orange ones, and that the purple environment is used exclusively to update MSYS2.
Suggestion 3
Add a MOTD if the user checked the checkbox of being noob. This MOTD will explain what is available at the user's disposal, with short examples, links to tutorials and how to disable the MOTD.
Last week a freshman shared his sorrows of not having gcc on his Windows computer. When I helped him, I was surprised to know he actually tried MSYS2, without success. I then walked him through all necessary steps to get MSYS2 up to speed for his first year in computer science.
Suggestion 1
Add a checkbox on the installer called: "Install tools for C and C++ noobs", which will install a couple of tools, for several environments, even if opinionated or excessive:
Because this checkbox will install many packages, the installer should warn so about additional weight, Internet connection requirement and tell the user to uninstall unused packages if he feels like it one day.
Suggestion 2
Although the user can search on Windows for "clang" and the correct environment will open, if the user searches for "gcc", no results yield. "gcc" could be placed between parenthesis for the start menu shortcut after the environment title when appropriate. Further, if the user happens to enter the purple environment instead of the blue environment, and he tries to use gcc, instead of "bash: gcc: command not found", it could tell the user that he is on the wrong environment and he should open the blue or orange ones, and that the purple environment is used exclusively to update MSYS2.
Suggestion 3
Add a MOTD if the user checked the checkbox of being noob. This MOTD will explain what is available at the user's disposal, with short examples, links to tutorials and how to disable the MOTD.