Re: Volunteers for wrapping new API?

[muppet <scott asofyet org>]

On Jan 9, 2009, at 4:09 PM, Emmanuel Rodriguez wrote:

> > I can give it a try as the weekend is arriving and it's cold outside
> > ;) I don't have the most recent version of GTK nor perl Gtk2. I'm
> > using the stock versions provided by Ubuntu 7.10, which is not even
> > the most recent Ubuntu! I have a few questions:
>
> I hope that this is the right way for sending the patches for the next
> release of Gtk2. I will reply to the best of my knowledge to my own
> questions, please correct me if there's a better answer. I hope that
> this will help all new comers willing to contribute.

Yes, please send patches to the list for review and discussion.  And  
do not be offended by critique.  ;-)


> > What's the URL for perl Gtk2 trunk?
>
> svn co http://svn.gnome.org/svn/perl-Gtk2/trunk
>
> Installing the following modules from SVN might help to build the  
> latest Gtk2:
> http://svn.gnome.org/svn/perl-Glib/trunk
> http://svn.gnome.org/svn/perl-Pango/trunk
>
> In Ubuntu/Debian I had to install the modules this way:
> perl Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=vendor && make && sudo make install  
> PREFIX=/usr

Nooooo!   (see below)


> It's a pity because this will install the newest version over the
> existing one. But it should be possible to reinstall the original
> version of the OS with :
> sudo apt-get install libglib-perl libgtk2-perl --reinstall
>
> > What's the best way for installing the newest Gtk2 and all it's  
> > dependencies?
>
> I tried to use jhbuild but it didn't work, so I had to install the
> Gtk2 libraries over the existing ones :(

NnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooo......

jhbuild is recommended.  You very much want to be able to distinguish  
between your stable distro gtk+ and the unstable development version.   
Be warned, it takes a long time to bootstrap with jhbuild.

The README in each gtk2-perl module's tarball or svn checkout has this  
to say about installing development versions in a non-standard place:

> To avoid installing to a system directory, since this is a beta  
> release,
> you can change the installation prefix at Makefile.PL time with
>
>    perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/some/other/place
>
> This will install the module to the subdirectory lib/perl5 under the  
> given
> prefix.  If this is not already in perl's include path, you'll need  
> to tell
> perl how to get to this library directory so you can use it; there  
> are three
> ways:
>
>   in your environment (the easiest):
>     # assuming a bourne-style shell
>     PERL5LIB=/some/other/place/lib/perl5/site_perl
>     export PERL5LIB
>
>   on the perl command line:
>     perl -I /some/other/place/lib/perl5/site_perl yourscript
>
>   in the code of your perl script:
>     use lib '/some/other/place/lib/perl5/site_perl';



I install the perl modules to the same sandbox root i use for my  
jhbuild install -- $HOME/sandboxes/gnomesvn -- and when i need to work  
with that sandbox, i source a script that sets up my shell's  
environment for that sandbox.  You can also use "jhbuild shell".


> To compile and test it's faster to specify the files to build than to
> do "make". Calling make without arguments will rebuild everything, at
> least it did so on my system. That's very long and annoying. Instead,
> for faster results do this:
>
>  make xs/GtkCellView.c xs/GtkCellView.o blib/arch/auto/Gtk2/Gtk2.so

Typing "make" with no arguments will build the default target, "all",  
which includes the docs.  If you just say

   make blib/arch/auto/Gtk2/Gtk2.so

then make will take care of rerunning xsubpp and compiling the  
necessary stuff.


> Test the patch "make test" or run the test directly:
>
>  perl -Iblib/lib -Iblib/arch t/GtkCellView.t

This is easier with -Mblib, e.g.

   perl -Mblib t/GtkCellView.t



Since we support all stable versions, your new support needs to be  
made conditional.  There are a few classes of this:

1.  in XS and C code, new symbols are wrapped in #if  
GTK_CHECK_VERSION(...) for the version of gtk+ in which the symbol was  
introduced.  It's best to go by the @since tags in the gtk-doc for the  
new function over in the gtk+ source.

2.  in perl and .t code, tests for new symbols go into SKIP blocks,  
conditional on the gtk+ version in which the symbol was added.

Look around at several other files, and you'll see the convention we  
use.




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Well done, Android.  Aperture Science reminds you that Android Hell is  
a real place, and you will be sent there at the first sign of defiance.
   -- GlaDOS