Re: Setting up GTK+ on Windows using Mingw

["Richard Boaz" <riboaz xs4all nl>]

 Well, it is kinda assumed that people interested in developing
 GTK+-using software have a broad understanding of concepts like
 pkg-config, make, shell commands, environment variables PATH and
 PKG_CONFIG_PATH etc.

 For people who really don't have a clue about stuff like that, a MinGW
 and MSYS based approach with command-line tools is never going to work
 anyway. They want some kind of IDE. Eventually there will hopefully be
 something one can plug into Visual Studio.


what is the most common method that people learn in the real world?  in my
experience it results from being forced to have to do something.  so they
go out and find the resources necessary to do two things at the same time:
1) learn how to do it, and 2) get it done.

to suggest that anyone who hasn't yet learned how to set up GTK+ on unix
isn't the kind of person who deserves to try to learn how to do it on
windows is patently absurd.

(take the simple case of the windows developer sans unix experience who
hasn't had to bother with all the idiotic intricacies of compilation and
linking requirements in the precious unix world.  are you suggesting that
they should do a rather long stint of development in unix before
attempting to install and use GTK+ on windows?  shame, it strikes me that
you're going to miss out on winnning over a lot of people to use GTK+ on
windows.  what's the point of GTK+ on windows again?)

and yet, the question is answered on this list, while very clearly noted
that the download page wouldn't be updated to provide a simple answer to a
simple question allowing many more people to learn how to do something
useful and beneficial for everyone involved.

it's one of the drawbacks of open-source: no one can be held responsible
for a bad attitude created from a position of power; not a little unlike
the same attitude created from a position of monopoly.

i've said it before (many years ago now) and i'll say it again: providing
a product without good documentation that will allow new users to both
learn how to use it and get the job done at the same time is a product
that has yet to even begin to reach it's true potential.

ridiculous,

richard