A new definition of libraries (was: Linux Installation)

[Andre Garzia]

Bob,

english is not my native language and sometimes I do fail to express  
myself in a way that others understand but even more often I do miss  
what the other guy is trying to express.

I really am not grasping what you're trying to do but I'll try to  
explain a couple things about your last email. I am not using Rev for  
Linux, I ditched linux from my everyday life when I switched to the  
macintosh years ago. Let us begin by talking about linux package  
systems. As everyone and his techie dog knows, distributing linux  
software might prove a very complex experience due to the library  
dependency nightmare, that, I talked a little on my previous email.  
Also some FOSS Linux users won't trust or install any binary package,  
they will only trust/like software that is Free in all senses of the  
word and that they are able to see the source and build by  
themselves, thats cultural. TGZ is a gZiped tarball, which in plain  
english is a folder that was put inside a tape archive file and then  
zipped, this is the popular way for packing things for linux, very  
vanilla. Some eons ago when Red Hat was starting they created the RPM  
which stands for Red Hat Package Manager which is more than a simple  
compressed stuff for it knows where to unpack the files and to check  
for dependencies. RPM proved very successful and many distros now use  
it. So when you have a linux distribution that uses RPM as its main  
package system, you can trust that by installing a RPM file will give  
you all the files in the correct place and a software that will run.  
If you pick a TGZ (more usually a .tar.gz) file, then you might need  
to do some file moving yourself. RunRev distributes a binary package,  
by binary I am saying that the software comes as an closed binary  
executable and not as source code (of course they won't give the  
source for the engine) thats why you had such nice experience, the  
software is already built and your Unbuntu which is a very high level  
distro has the right libraries in the right place™.

Now please Bob, I don't know if I am really helping you go somewhere  
but can you please tell me what you're trying to do? If its building  
software for linux with runrev then trust one thing, if the IDE runs,  
the standalones will run too. Rev will probably run on all major  
linux distros provided they are new ones (meaning no ancient kernel  
running for 5 years...). But don't expect it to run everywhere, not  
even linux users expect it. No one is expecting that Rev apps run on  
DSL or Knoppix (although they might).

If your standalone doesn't run on a given linux, its not your fault.  
You're not responsible for that and you can do very little. Debugging  
why the app is not running is a very complex job and to get it  
running at all costs (replacing libraries, creating new symlinks) is  
a job for someone that really knows what he is doing, the normal end  
user will not go that way. What you can do that would really boost  
your linux offerings is:

	* Study linux packaging: create packages for your software for all  
major packaging systems like RPM, Debian and the others.
	* Create diagnostic bash scripts: this is a hard one and maybe the  
community should gather on a collective effort on this one. A script  
that would use ldd to find which libraries the standalone is linking  
and to check the presence of each one and write a logfile. In cases  
of software not running, this script might shed a clue.
	* Join forces in one-click software efforts for linux such as  
linspire click-and-run. There are people making money thru this  
channels, you might like it.

Thats all I can think of, but I still don't understand what is really  
the problem. :-)

Andre

On Jun 11, 2006, at 12:00 PM, Bob Warren wrote:

> As I have said, I am not qualified to discuss the technicalities of  
> the distribution of Rev standalones for Linux, how distributable  
> they really are among the various distros, and whether they might  
> need a "setup" or "installation" in the traditional sense. But I do  
> know a few facts.
>
> Runtime Revolution produce a fairly sophisticated piece of software  
> for Linux (far more sophisticated than I could ever produce) called  
> "Runtime Revolution". If I go to their site, RR for Linux is  
> available in 2 forms: one for Red Hat Linuxes and one for the  
> others called "TGZ". I have never used a Red Hat Linux, so I  
> download the 2nd of these. Once I have downloaded and expanded the  
> available archive on my desktop (or somewhere else if I like), I  
> have a bunch of files. Among these files, I look for the one called  
> "Revolution.X86" and I double click on it. The Rev IDE presents  
> itself on screen, and I am ready to begin creating my own stacks.
>
> Note that in the description above there is no mention of "setup"  
> or "installation" in the traditional sense of the words. Also, I  
> presume that as this is the procedure on my Ubuntu Linux, it is  
> also the procedure on many (all?) other non-Red Hat Linuxes.  
> Speculating, I think that it may be identical to the procedure on  
> Red Hat Linuxes too, but I don't know.
>
> What is this then? Magic? Or is Rev itself profoundly different  
> from the standalone programs I produce using Rev?
>
> As I have said, perhaps I am getting a little lost in the  
> technicalities of the discussion so far, but I do wonder how many  
> people providing very interesting contributions actually use or  
> have ever used Rev for Linux.
>
> If there is something wrong with my dummy's logic, then please tell  
> me where I am going wrong!
>
> Regards,
> Bob
>
>
>
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