n00b prog

[choasforages]

ok, i just though of a kickass program for newbies. for installing things from source. ok here is what it would do. gunzip /untar a tarball. read the autoconf info. and present the user with the ./configure options and then let the user select the options with a gui instead of
./configure --shit --shitty=redhats_gcc
but i can barly even peck out a decent hello world prog in an shell script, i can make cool c++ progs that don't do anything. i can't even use gtk yet/*doh*/ so does anyone want to help me learn enough to do this, or just make it yourselfs. or has somebody already made this

[trc3]

I think that would be a really good idea, because one of the things that scares people the most about linux is compiling programs.  Most people are just use to clicking something and the install program does it all for you.

[choasforages]

yes i know, i though about it when i was building ChoasNETOS for my own enjoyment. if it were only easyer to do this maybe n00bs would be more inclinded. but i am not good enough to write this shit though

[voidmain]

It would be MUCH easier and beneficial if you just created an RPM and an SRPM out of the packages in question, assuming that the RPM doesn't already exist.  That would be far easier for n00bs.

[TheQuirk]

I think writing it in SDL would be pretty easy. Maybe I'll try... =\

[badkarma]

SDL? for this? Now I like SDL, but you my friend, are crazy      

use Qt instead

if I ever get a vacation I might be persuaded to write a little tool which does this ....

[ August 01, 2002: Message edited by: BadKarma ]

[ August 01, 2002: Message edited by: BadKarma ]

[TheQuirk]

I like SDL :-p

And if I'm doing anything tat has to do with graphics, it's going to be SDL!

[badkarma]

quote:Originally posted by TheQuirk:
I like SDL :-p

And if I'm doing anything tat has to do with graphics, it's going to be SDL!

I like SDL too (better yet ... I love it) however it is totally not suited for general GUI programs. It's a very low level toolkit, originally created for games, so in this case Qt would be a faaar better choice.

[TheQuirk]

Well I want to write it in SDL! Bite me!

[badkarma]

Ok ... then you'll have to manually parse the autoconf file, while I just use a QProcess to run it, grab the output and use a QRegExp to grab all the options ....

have fun I say.....

 

[badkarma]

quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
It would be MUCH easier and beneficial if you just created an RPM and an SRPM out of the packages in question, assuming that the RPM doesn't already exist.  That would be far easier for n00bs.

Yeah Void, but it would be nice to be able to easily pick specific options for n00bs and compile a program from source, tailor made for their wishes and system.

[choasforages]

well, why don't you both write a different version, and whichever version is better.....


wouldn't it be better to seperate the ass end from the front end. like maybe have different interfaces like written in gtk+1.2 gtk+2.0 qt-2 qt-3, ncurses, and such and just have a lib to handle grabbing the options/*then agian that would be more complex, but better in the end for everyone*/

anohter thing, the prog would have to chop out common autoconf options and leave that for "expert" mode

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by BadKarma:


Yeah Void, but it would be nice to be able to easily pick specific options for n00bs and compile a program from source, tailor made for their wishes and system.

I guess it would be a good learning project if nothing else. Heck, I'm happy if the source package is even incorporates configure. Is it too early to ask if you can also make your program spit out an RPM and SRPM, along with the Debian package?  

[choasforages]

well, i think the quirk is working on getting it to be demoable like to show people that we have something that works now i was thinking about regerstering it on sourceforge, there are obvios benifits to doing it that way right??? or is it just a pain in the ass. as for debian and rpm's, that might be an option, however since it is most likely going to be open source, you could always add that feature. besides, i can't really code good enough to do anything usefull, i just think of good ideas that could benifit the linux/open source comunity. and making it easy for n00bs to compile from source, and using terminoligy like installing a program normally, i think that would be a great plus. hell, the guys behind rpm probably didn't think that they were inventing a standerd, or maybe they did. as for licensing, i guess if the quirk is writing the basics like he said he was, it would probably be up to him to decide the licence. i was leaning more toward the lgpl myself. so people could use it like a library or something like that

[voidmain]

I would put it under GPL and not LGPL if I were you.  That would require any program that used it to also be GPL. And by all means, if your program looks like it will be useful put it on sourceforge.

[ August 01, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]