On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Richard Jones<rich@annexia.org> wrote:
> Give them a live CD.
>
> There are various online projects where you can create live CDs with a
> custom set of packages via a webpage.[1]
>
> A live CD is actually better than relying on them trying to install
> something under Windows, because you're guaranteeing a consistent
> environment.  And you can provide them with customized bits too (like
> the coursework!)
>
> If you provide the live CD as both a physical CD and a downloadable
> ISO, they can even run it virtualized so they don't need to reboot.

This may be a nice longer-term goal for Batteries and/or Community
OCaml.  Providing a livecd or perhaps a ready-to-go virtual machine
image would make it much simpler for folks with problems (4) and (6)
to try out both OCaml and Batteries in a known-functional environment.

Hez

-- 
Hezekiah M. Carty
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Maryland
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science