[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1807: Download instructions do not let a new user compile

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1807: Download instructions do not let a new user compile
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  Reporter:  rhaas                    |       Owner:                     
      Type:  enhancement              |      Status:  new                
  Priority:  major                    |   Milestone:                     
 Component:  EinsteinToolkit website  |     Version:  development version
Resolution:                           |    Keywords:                     
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Comment (by eschnett):

 A VM would be nice; so would be a Docker image.

 However, it should also be possible to "just build and run". We've in the
 past concentrated on telling people how to do things "properly", i.e. to
 carefully look for existing packages (HDF5, MPI) and to use those, and
 even telling people to install packages if necessary.

 To keep things simple, we can turn things around. We can require only a C
 and C++ compiler, and then build MPI and HDF5 ourselves. That should
 suffice to run Cactus and the ET in a reasonable way, i.e. to get the
 first physics results. Everything else -- performance optimizations,
 reducing build time, etc. -- can be done later, once people know they are
 actually interested in using the ET.

 The goal here is to make things as simple as possible for a new user, not
 "as simple as possible, and make Fortran work", or "as simple as possible,
 but trying to find out whether MPI is installed correctly", etc. We want
 "download tarball, build, run", and nothing else.

 I'd argue that even GetComponents is too fragile for a new user who wants
 to attend a one-day tutorial.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1807#comment:3>
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