Re: why is gtk install so difficult?

[Steve Grimaud <sgrimaud ispwest com>]

Hi,
   I'm sorry, but the statement below by Reuben hits the nail on the 
head for the "user."

Sven's answer (also quoted below) assumes several things that just 
aren't likely to happen unless you're advanced in the use of Linux and 
in building and installing software packages.  I "read the docs" and 
followed the steps for pointing to what I believed were the right 
locations. I wonder why I should have to "understand how the compiler 
and linker work" in order to install a program. If it is easy enough to 
"understand from a hundred lines of text or so," where are those lines 
of code? If Linux and these install and configuration packages are so 
powereful, the how in the world can a program not find files that I can 
find with a minimal comprehension of linux commands?

The widespread popularity of rpms testifies to the facts that 1) 
building from source is NOT a trivial task, and 2) someone can figure 
out how to do it when they build the rpm.

I tried building a program from source (jpilot) on RH9 (shrike). I 
encountered a "problem" with not finding GTK+ 2.0.0 or higher (although 
I believe it's somewhere on my computer). I then downloaded GTK+; then 
glib, pango, and atk+, since they had to be updated; then pkg-config, 
since it wasn't the most uptodate (according to the other 
configure/make/make install error messages). I know I installed atk+, 
but GKT+ tells me it can't find it.

I give up. You have to have more than a basic understanding of the 
operating system and general installation procedures for programs to get 
these all to build and install.

Steve Grimaud

Sven Neumann wrote:

> > Nothing is more fustrating than being told by a gtk application that
> > lib xyz doesn't exist, when you can see the library in plain sight
> > on the file system.
> >    
>
> IMO this is solely a problem of people not reading the docs. Building
> GTK+ (and probably most if not all GNOME applications) is
> straight-forward if you know a handful of rules. Basically you will
> need to know how your compiler looks for include files and how your
> linker looks for libraries. Then you should know how to change these
> behaviours and what role pkg-config is playing in this game. All this
> can be explained in full detail in about hundred lines. If people
> would look at the file INSTALL, they would notice a link to a webpage
> as well as a pointer to a local file which does just that. If you have
> a working build environment and understand these simple rules, you
> shouldn't run into any build problems.
>