Re: libglade frustration

[David Nečas (Yeti) <yeti physics muni cz>]

On Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 02:03:29PM -0700, Michael Torrie wrote:
> In any event, if a user wants to develop with
> libglade, he'd need to install the rpms or debs or whatever.  Most users
> aren't going to be using the raw tarballs.

Install it and use it are two very different things.

Sure, one installs the library from rpms, debs, ports, ...
But programming with a library without looking at its source
code?  If one is legally permitted to, who would throw away
such a source of examples (whether they are dedicated
examples or not), a style guide, ..., and above all the
ultimate reference?

So I would expect most people to get the source code
anyway...(cont)

> The problem with the raw tarballs is that they cause would-be users a
> lot of grief.  I and many others on the list no longer recommend that
> new developers compile and install the various parts of gtk from
> tarballs.

I recommend everyone to *compile* the source code.  Install
it only if you know what you are doing though.

> Without the proper understanding of the prefix, the
> pkg_config environment variable, and the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, users end up
> with completely broken systems.

(cont)...the fact they often use it to destruct their
systems instead of studying it is sad, and I must admit
I don't know how to change this -- aside from adding more
examples to the API reference itsefl and adding the
information the source code tarball contains more examples
to a prominent place in the API reference.

But the prospect of each library package (and worse, its
*non*-developer package on distros that make this
difference) coming with some demo executables with the sole
purpose to provide examples to clueless developers does not
fill me with joy either.  Isn't /usr/bin already cluttered
enough?

Moreover, if somone can neither find an example using Google
nor grab and unpack the source code, would he be able to
figure out there is some foo-demo sample program in libfoo
package?

Yeti


--
Whatever.