On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 7:41 PM, kcrisman <kcris...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >> However, in the ideal case a user simply downloads and runs an >> executable--clicks through a graphical install wizard, and then gets a >> desktop icon which launches a Jupyter notebook (with sage and terminal >> support) in their default web browser. Although there are still a few >> rough edges [2] the alpha version of the Sage for Windows installer >> that I have for you today does just that: >> > > Wow, this sounds fantastic! Maybe it's time to resurrect the old > sage-windows list > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sage-windows/5vW8TZSEsXs > which I see now Samuel L. has just done. Perhaps continue some technical > discussion there (or cc: it)?
Thanks--I didn't know there was such a list. I should get on that, since Sage on Windows (natively, with Cygwin, or otherwise) is one of my primary goals here. > Or "an" official distribution; presumably some people might like the VM for > various reasons? (Sandboxing, maybe, is there a difference between these > solutions with respect to that?) Not really. Docker containers provide sandboxing just as well, and are much lighter-weight and simpler to deploy. I've tried to avoid too much technical discussion here for now, but using Docker on Windows *does* require a VM, which is why Docker for Windows also installs VirtualBox. However, it's a very tiny, stripped down Linux VM (the image is ~25 MB) that provides *just* enough to run the Docker engine. This VM runs headlessly and is communicated with over sockets by the Docker client, which runs natively on Windows. For the notebook that's all moot, because all that matters is that the server is up and running, the right ports are forwarded, and then the user opens it in their web browser. However it will also be possible soon (just a few more tweaks needed) to run `cmd.exe`, type `sage` at the prompt, and be in the sage command-line interface as though it were running natively. In this case of course the "sage" executable is just a batch script that runs the docker client with the right options. It's worth providing all these wrappers though, since this can be difficult, confusing, and time-consuming for the "average" user to set up. (Incidentally there *is* experimental support for a version of the Docker engine on Windows Server 2016 that Microsoft has been helping with, made possible through new kernel features similar to those used in Linux to support containerization, but that's still going to be out of reach for a long while to most desktop users...) Erik -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
