[Solved] TADS3 development software: Download has invalid format [Linux]

[Pebblerubble (Peter Wiehe)]

I use Linux [edit add: on 64bit PC.] I went to the TADS3 download page
https://www.tads.org/tads3.htm
and clicked on “Writing my own…” and then Linux/Unix. and then the download started, but my depacker complains that it is not a valid gzip format.

I went to the bug report page but it is gone.

I also looked at this thread, but it is about compiling from source (which I try to avoid.) :

How do you build TADS3 compiler in linux

Hi, I downloaded the TADS3 compiler from http://www.tads.org/frobtads.htm (both the full download and the TADS3 compiler). The default configure script only seems to compile the interpreter, but I also need the compiler. There seems to be no configure option to include the compiler (such as configure --with-compiler) but the makefile looks like it has lines to build the compiler which are commented out. Without further documentation i am a bit stuck – can anyone help? Thanks

Any hint what to do?

[inventor200 (Joey "Jess" Tanden)]

I don’t think the TADS workbench works on Linux.

I use a combination of FrobTADS, VSCode, and the TADS extension that @Tomas made. I can write up something more detailed later today; currently going through a difficult moment lately.

I hope I can see another Linux TADS developer on the forum.

[Pebblerubble (Peter Wiehe)]

I hope your difficulties dissolve both in outer and inner (psyche) sphere.

I don’t try to get the Workbench. I try to get FrobTads (the newest version).

[inventor200 (Joey "Jess" Tanden)]

Oh, it might also be good to know what distro/version of Linux you’re using.

EDIT: Thank you for your well wishes.

[Pebblerubble (Peter Wiehe)]

I’m using Xubuntu 22.04.2 LTS. (downloading with Chromium).

Theoretically it could be a bug in my gunzip software. But I doubt that. But if I’m the only one having this issue then it must be my software.

[jbg]

I just looked, and the problem appears to be that the file has a tar.gz extension, but it’s actually just an unzipped tarball. You can untar it via something like tar -xf frobtads-1.2.3.tar.gz from the command line.

It’s also just an old source release, it doesn’t contain the binaries if that’s what you’re looking for.

To build on linux, I just get the latest from the git repo and build it; I don’t know of any binary distributions that are up-to-date.

[Pebblerubble (Peter Wiehe)]

Thanks. That helps me getting TADS onto my system.

[inventor200 (Joey "Jess" Tanden)]

Do you happen to know if FrobTADS downloads the newest version of Adv3Lite, or will @Pebblerubble need to manually update it?

[jbg]

I don’t think any version of FrobTADS includes any version of adv3lite.

[inventor200 (Joey "Jess" Tanden)]

Okay; good to know. I probably installed adv3Lite myself at one point and just forgot the process I went through lol.

[Piergiorgio_d_errico]

I use frobTads under Debian 64b, and of course I have compiled from source; yes, frobTads has only Adv3 (Note to johnnyZ: indeed there’s differences with Adv3 on tads workbench…) and also I have installed a3Lite by hand.

Do you have read the doc/INSTALL file ? frobTads don’t use make, but cmake (to be fired from a newly-created directory…) so isn’t the usual “train” (configure-make-(go root)-make install).

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Pebblerubble (Peter Wiehe)]

@Piergiorgio_d_errico

Do you have read the doc/INSTALL file ? frobTads don’t use make, but cmake

Yes, I’ve read it and yes, I use cmake, not make.

I got it built and installed from source code.

[RealNC]

Please note that the download links on tads.org are outdated. Use:

https://github.com/realnc/frobtads/releases/latest