Re: why is gtk install so difficult?

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

On Wed, 2003-10-15 at 00:00, 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.
> 

configure/make/makeinstall are not a packaging system; they are
optimized for the needs of _developers_ and _packagers_, not end users.

If you want to compile from source but still have something optimized
for your needs, BSD ports, Gentoo, garnome, etc. are examples of
source-based tools aimed at end users. jhbuild is a tool aimed at
developers that also makes it easier (handles the various paths for you
for example). Use these tools.

Compiling from source is hard due to the intrinsic nature of the
problem. I don't think there are many ways to make it easier without
compromising functionality for developers and packagers (and the library
itself), but you're welcome to suggest specifics (which you haven't, you
are just bitching).

But don't confuse the build setup with a packaging system. The purpose
of the build setup is to be flexible enough to be bent into the various
packaging systems and tools, which keeps it from making the assumptions
those systems make in order to just work.

Havoc