Newbie problems/questions

["William D. Tallman" <wtallman olypen com>]

Hello all,

Started reading/working through Eric Harlow's "Developing Linux 
Applications..", and have run into problems of various kinds.  I'm a C newbie 
as well (iso C), so there are some things that would be obvious to 
experienced C programmers that I'm sure I miss.  That said, I can write 
simple stuff and read most code with some understanding.

I have used simple makefiles with success, but haven't gotten beyond the 
basics, I'm sure.

Apparently, one's environment is not only important (what versions of what 
utilities, libraries, etc.), but on several levels:  I'm running Linux 
Mdk-8.0, Gtk/Gdk/Glib-1.2. x, with some extensive upgrades and additions.  I 
have the development installation with as many -devel packages as I've found 
available.  So far as I am aware, it all works together just fine, at least 
for user apps.  Now for what I've done:

So I did most of the little widget stuff in the beginning of the book, and 
then started in on some of the projects.  Finally got the clock to work 
right.  Started in on the Calculator and managed to get it to display, but it 
would seg-fault when I tried to use it.  Then I decided to try the Gnotepad, 
which has several separate files.  Hacked a little Makefile with the proper 
commands (--cflags for compile, and --libs for linking).  Huge list of 
complaints and the compiler bailed on the first file.  Finally arranged the 
list with main.c first and got it to compile, but notepad.c had all these 
undeclared variables!

So I went to the MacMillan site and over to New Riders and found the 
downloads of all the code in the book.  Calculator manages to work with some 
extra header files, but the Gnotepad code is as bad as the code in the book 
itself!!

Today I d/led and searched the entire Gtk mailing list from 1999 and found a 
few references to some complaints about the code in this book, but the 
comment was that the bugs were easily fixable.  And that's all, at least that 
I found.

I would really like to start "getting it" with Gtk+, and thought perhaps I 
could learn from some examples, at least enough to start getting a feel for 
how Gtk+ is used, etc.  But, damme if I'm having any luck at all with this 
book!!

Is there a subscriber to this list that might be willing to mentor this 
newbie a while until he gets his feet under him?  If so, I'd be much 
obliged!!  I really don't want to waste everyone's bandwidth with long and 
dreary recitations of woe with lots of relevant (?) code included.  

In any case, how should I proceed here?

Thanks to all for reading...<grin>

Bill Tallman