erlgtk 0.9.7 (was: Re: 2D in erlang)

[Chris Pressey]

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 11:17:51 +0000
Peter-Henry Mander <erlang@REDACTED> wrote:

> Hi Chris,

'lo Pete,

> I've given the binary distribution a go on a Linux machine, but it
> sits there very quietly, no errors or any feedback when I try all the
> suggested invokations.
> 
> It could be that it expects to sit somewhere specific, I just tar -zxf
> it in my home directory and tried as-is. I'm not running BSD.

Well, Linux and FreeBSD are similar, but not quite *that* similar :)

I suppose I could have been more clear about these being FreeBSD-only
packages - in FreeBSD all you have to say is

  # pkg_add erlgtk-0.9.7_gtk2.0.tgz

...and everything will be put in its proper place, pending the proper
dependencies.

Unlike ex11, erlgtk isn't 100% Pure Erlang - there's a native binary,
the port program 'gtk_drv', which is probably what's unresponsive on
your Linux system.  (This makes some sense now that I think about it -
the binary executable format is the same on the two OSes AFAIK, but the
syscall parameter passing discipline is different, so nothing
interesting happens.)

If I had the skills and the resources, I'd put together an RPM or a
dpkg or one of those emerge-y things for Gentoo, but this would be
entirely new to me.  (If anyone who does know how does want to make one,
though, I'll happily host it alongside my Windows and FreeBSD ones.)

Currently your best bet on Linux is probably installing from source. 
It's not too hard at all, especially if you use the latest sources from
Sourceforge.  You can build and use it from right inside the CVS tree.

HTH,
-Chris