[comp.windows.x] Free Widget Set's missing Imakefile braindamage.

jkh@MEEPMEEP.PCS.COM (Jordan K. Hubbard) (04/10/91)

A flame and a cautionary tale:

From the README:

>       X includes & libs are located, then type make.  I had Imakefiles
>       for these, but they didn't work right, so I switched to makefiles
>       for now...

Arghhhh! No no no! The proper solution would have been to fix the
Imakefiles or, at the very least, include them with the distribution
so that others will a better grasp of Imakefile construction could have
fixed them.

As it is, people like myself who must support multiple architectures
from the same source tree are out of luck.

People: If you're going to distribute something, and have trouble
with producing an Imakefile for it, ASK FOR HELP. DO NOT simply
punt and send out a Makefile instead! Many of us have taken the
Imakefile/config mechanism to its logical extension and can no
longer use simple Makefiles without a lot of work - there are simply
too many various flags and libraries involved on some machines.

Thank you.

					Jordan

jackm@sparrow.pica.army.MIL (Jack Moskowitz) (04/10/91)

On the  other  hand,  there  are those  of  us  with  binary
distributions of X who  can't get imake  working.  A  simple
and ordinary makefile is much preferrable in this case.

[Running a Masscomp/Concurrent with Xlib and Motif - version
numbers don't conform to MIT's but probably X.4.]

Jack Moskowitz
System Administrator
AMCCOM - PA&TD
Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.
<jackm@qa1.pica.army.mil>

> 
> A flame and a cautionary tale:
> 
> From the README:
> 
> >       X includes & libs are located, then type make.  I had Imakefiles
> >       for these, but they didn't work right, so I switched to makefiles
> >       for now...
> 
> Arghhhh! No no no! The proper solution would have been to fix the
> Imakefiles or, at the very least, include them with the distribution
> so that others will a better grasp of Imakefile construction could have
> fixed them.
> 
> As it is, people like myself who must support multiple architectures
> from the same source tree are out of luck.
> 
> People: If you're going to distribute something, and have trouble
> with producing an Imakefile for it, ASK FOR HELP. DO NOT simply
> punt and send out a Makefile instead! Many of us have taken the
> Imakefile/config mechanism to its logical extension and can no
> longer use simple Makefiles without a lot of work - there are simply
> too many various flags and libraries involved on some machines.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> 					Jordan

jackm@sparrow.pica.army.MIL (Jack Moskowitz) (04/11/91)

Give me a break.  Don't you think I would bang on the vendor first.

The vendor (Concurrent) just says that they don't support it.

Not all vendors are created equal.

--jack

> 
> In article <9104101151.aa00901@sparrow.pica.army.mil> you write:
> >On the  other  hand,  there  are those  of  us  with  binary
> >distributions of X who  can't get imake  working.  A  simple
> >and ordinary makefile is much preferrable in this case.
> 
> Eh?  If imake "doesn't work" (???) then bang on your vendor.
> 
> Are you sure you don't mean "I don't know how to use imake" ...?
> 
> /jordan

totty@flute.cs.uiuc.edu (Brian Totty) (04/11/91)

	The Free Widget stuff will include Imakefiles in the future.  Even
	imake has functionality problems for people who have X located in
	non-standard places, and with various architectures.  So far, few
	people have complained about the lack of imakefiles, and are glad
	that some people are trying to make their lives a bit easier by
	collecting widgets together.  I will try to get an imake-able version
	as soon as possible, but can make no promises as to how soon.

   /                      Brian Totty              o o
  /__  __  o       1304 W. Springfield Avenue       o  
 /  / /   /             Urbana, IL 61801           \_/  "We have corn in
/__/ /   /             totty@cs.uiuc.edu                Massachusetts too!"