Binary installer for GSL-1.13 on MinGW

From ASCEND

Here are some convenient installers for GSL (the GNU Scientific Library) versions 1.11 and 1.13 on MinGW:

The installer includes all the code examples from the GSL distribution but currently does not include documentation files (user's manual).

Included is a build script included (examples/SConstruct) which gives you a cross-platform method for compiling GSL programs on Windows, Linux and Mac) using the SCons build tool.

The copy of GSL included in this installer was built using GCC 3.4.5 on MinGW with the following commands:

./configure --enable-static=no --enable-shared=yes --prefix=/c/PROGRA~1/gsl-1.11
make
mkdir ~/temp_gsl
DESTDIR=~/temp_gsl make install

Scripts used to package this installer will happily be provided on request. Written using NSIS.

The installer writes registry keys to allow you to find where the libraries etc have been installed.. so you can pick up those file locations in your own software's build scripts, or hard-code them, up to you.

Future work

• It would be good to convert the gsl-config script to Python, and then change it so that it detects the installed file locations using the Windows Registry.
• Also be good to add the GSL install location to the Windows %PATH%... currently the installer doesn't do this.
• Should try to also include the static libraries... some users would like that.
• Fix up support for installation on 64-bit machines. Currently some of the paths use 'PROGRA~1' which is not correct for that platform.