[Sussex] Compiler G++ problems

[Thomas Adam]

On Sun, Jun 19, 2005 at 10:34:29AM +0100, Andrew Guard wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Jun 18, 2005 at 10:07:34PM +0100, Andrew Guard wrote:
> >
> >> I am using ubuntu 5.04. Gosh I thought it was Linux system, well
> >> installing g++ I thought that would be on by default but alas no. 8
> >> hours wasted find out that hay ho.
> >
> > Why _should_ it be on by default? There's no requirement to say it
> > should.
>
> Err, it Open Source. I thought the idea of having a compiler would
> installed by default to be useful.

Yes, it is Open Source.  No, it doesn't come with the moon on a stick.
Just because it is open source, that does not mean that it comes with
everything you think it should;  and more importantly you what you
_want_ it to by default.  Almost _all_ distributions these days are for
*users* of a system [1].  Developers (or those wanting to compile
applications) generally have enough clue as to:  1)  know how to install
the necessary tools, and 2) Shouldn't have that much of a problem doing
so.

Since you're using Ubuntu, there's a metapackage called
"build-essential" which will pull down all of the core compiler and
central libs for you:

# apt-get install build-essential

is the *first* thing you should do.  The other thing is to then install
all of the -dev libs that the application will need to compile.  You
might also find [2] interesting, if only for a high-level overview.

> Sadly I don't know as IDE system I use is cross platform 1 source code
> compiles for all systems Mac, Windows, Linux. I don't want to get to
> dumped down in the in's and out's of each system. Thats why I have
> gone down this route.

... which has bitten you square on the arse, it seems.  As nice a
sentiment as it may seem, this method of doing things is somewhat
restrictive.  Read [2] and you'll see how to compile usual applications.

> gcc gobjc-3.3 libsdl1.2-dev xxf86vm-dev

See 'build-essential', above.

> I sadly do not have time to play around with a system. Is there Linux
> distro which is recommended with the idea of software development.

Gentoo, LFS, etc.  But if you can't handle things this far, those
distros are not ones I'd recommend.

-- Thomas Adam

 [1] Gentoo and perhasps Debian, notwithstanding.
 [2] http://www.hants.lug.org.uk/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinuxHints/CompileFromSource
--  
"One of us is a cigar stand, and one of us is a lovely blue incandescent
guillotine" -- Stephen Malkmus, "Type Slowly" from "Brighten The Corners"