Re: why is gtk install so difficult?

[Michael Torrie <torriem chem byu edu>]

On Tue, 2003-10-14 at 22:00, Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS wrote:
> That is not aictually not  solution,  The problem with compiling
> GNOME and GTK have been going on too long and no degree of 
> Debian bigotry fixes the fundemental problem.

There is no fundemental problem.  I'm not trying to come off
condescending, but that's just the way it is.

Look.  GTK is a complicated and powerful set of libraries that, from the
point of view of a user, are system-level libraries.  They aren't meant
to be compiled by average users, and that often even means casual
developers.  That's what the distro packagers are for.  If you have
problems compiling GTK and it's dependencies, then you really do need to
stick with the binaries that your distro gives you.  If you try the
unstable or development versions of your distro, you will find gtk 2.4
if you need that.  (In redhat, that's "rawhide.")

GTK building is quite simple these days.  You do need to know how
configure works and were you should install libraries so as to not
interfere with your old libraries.  You nee to be aware that if you have
multiple versions of a library installed, that you may have to explicity
specify with LD_LIBRARY_PATH which ones to load.  Also you need to be
familiar with how pkg-config works.  If you don't then I won't sit here
and tell you how to compile every little thing.  

All the compilation problems I've seen lately on this list stem from
users not understanding what happens when you  install to /usr/local and
try to use pkg-config without telling it to look for your .pc files in
/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig (it defaults to /usr/lib/pkgconfig).  Once the
libraries are compiled, then there are issues with having a binary
-installed and -source installed conflicting.

I've built the whole GTK system from scratch several times, starting
with pango, atk, glib, and then gtk.  In each case it was a ./configure
--appropriate_options_here ; make ; make install.  Obviously you need to
set PKG_CONFIG_PATH to where your pc files install to.  Also the library
path needs to either be in /etc/ld.so.conf or set LD_LIBRARY_PATH.  I've
built GTK 2.2 in a cross-compiling environment, even.  I also deal with
GTK for win32 using my mingw32 environment.  (That involves setting
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/i386-mingw32/lib/pkgconfig and occasionally hacking
configure scripts that aren't quite right.)

I am familiar with the SNL skit you mention, and I feel that comparing
our responses to that is out of line.  The GTK developers expect that
you have a certain level of knowlege before you attempt to build it
yourself.  It's not hard, you just need to be familiar with the build
tools and process.

Michael


> 
> Ruben
> 
> 	
> 	
> On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 12:32:27PM +0930, David Lloyd wrote:
> > 
> > Tara,
> > 
> > > If I may add, it's also difficult to install GTK (not just a
> > > new one). I think the developers are doing a great job, and
> > > there is room for improvement.
> > 
> > apt-get install libgtk2
> > 
> > rpm -ivh libgtk*
> >  (or whatever Redhat/Mandrake call them)
> > 
> > emerge blah blah
> > 
> > cd /usr/ports/[whereever] && make install
> > 
> > ..don't sound too difficult to me.
> > 
> > 
> > DSL
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > gtk-list mailing list
> > gtk-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-list
-- 
Michael Torrie <torriem chem byu edu>