Linux/Python Issues

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

MartinRinehart at gmail.com a écrit :
> 
> bruno.desthuilliers at gmail.com wrote:
>> IOW: all this is assumed to be
>> common *n*x knowledge.
> 
> Both GNOME and KDE put Windows to shame. An old Windows guy, like me,
> can just start using either one without needing 'common *n*x
> knowledge.'

Err... Ever tried to compile them from sources ?-)

> Too bad the *n*x community isn't more welcoming to
> outsiders.

C'mon, Martin, be serious. Compiling softwares from sources requires at 
least some minimal 'insider' knowledge *whatever the platform*. You 
can't seriously hope each and every source distrib to provide 
newbie-oriented doc for what's obviously a power-user operation.

Or do you imply that there should be Windows installations instructions 
explaining the concepts of window, mouse, etc ? FWIW, I haven't seen so 
far any source distrib of any software targeting the Windows platform 
that didn't assume some 'common Windows knowledge'.

You label yourself as "an old Windows guy". This means you have a good 
knowledge of this platform. How long did it take to gain this knowledge 
? More than a couple weeks, I bet ?

FWIW, "a couple weeks" is the time it took me - coming from Mac then 
Windows - to be able to compile Python (or almost any other software) 
from sources on linux - and most of this time was spent solving 
dependancies issues badly managed by the particular distro I was using 
by that time, which wasn't the more standard nor documented one.

So, here's the basic scheme:

- download the source tarball, preferably in /usr/local/src
- unpack it
- cd into the unpacked source directory
- *carefully* read the README, INSTALL and other relevant docs
- run ./configure with the relevant options
- run make
- run make install

Wasn't too hard, was it ?-)

And before you say it:  yes indeed, it assumes you know how to use the 
command line, navigate your filesystem, copy/move things around, unpack 
an archive, read a text file etc... IOW, some more 'common *n*x 
knowledge' that you just can't hope to avoid learning if you want to 
properly use a *n*x system. Sorry.