Version: (using KDE Devel) Installed from: Compiled sources OS: Linux I am a relatively new user of LINUX/KDE/KDEVELOP, used to using Windows/VBA/Visual Studio etc... The first hurdle with KDEVELOP is getting the "hello world" program to compile and run. It does not work "out of the box". It has taken me ages to achieve this so I thought I would tell you guys what problems I had because I think it can be made easier for others without much effort at all. What I have done is: Installed KBUNTO on VirtualBox on my laptop running Windows XP Used the Adept package manager to install KDEVELOP Tried to compile and run the "simple Hello World" project -> at this stage lots of errors occur in the "make" process, which I do not know much about at all. Next I: Searched for some of the keywords in the error report and eventually discovered that I did not have gcc, g++, automake, autoconf or libtools. Once I installed them using the Adept package manager, the program compiles and runs nicely. Would it be possible to make it so that when kdevelop is installed, the user is warned that those other packages need to be installed before any programs will compile and run? The problem I have always had with using Linux in the past is that I end up spending all day installing and configuring stuff (and ending up in a complete mess) and hardly any time actually doing stuff I need to do. Kbunto is really good and kdevelop looks great, they are both close to a point where you can just download them and they work. Just thought that if this change was made then that process would be much closer. Thanks, Matthew Brand.
Please contact your distribution about dependecies of their packages. Please note that C++/autotools is not the only language/buildsystem that KDevelop supports and thus a dependecy would be wrong. Anyway, we don't deal with distributions packages so this BR is invalid. If you want to download and install kdevelop look at www.kdevelop.org and get the source package.
I agree that it would be unwise to force installation of these items whenever kdevelop is installed. However, maybe some kind of information would be pretty useful. The thing is, when you install kdevelop, it does come with those examples (like "simple Hello World"). I reckon that the first thing most new users will do is try to compile and run the "simple hello world" program, I did. Surely kdevelop ought to be able to build and run it's own shipped examples "out of the box" with as little pain as possible, especially when they are tagged with the word "simple". I just think it would be helpful to add some kind of warning (inside kdevelop) that tells new users that they cannot expect that to happen without installing those other bits of software. It really is not obvious at all to us guys who are trying it out for the first time that we need to seperately install gcc, g++, automake, autoconf and libtools in order to be able to compile c++ code in a c++ IDE. I had not even heard of automake, autoconf and libtools before today. In my opinion, it is a bug that you can't run the examples "out of the box" and that no warning or information is given to point you in the right direction. I think that a lot of people will have simply given up and tried something else the moment that the program failed to compile it's own "simple hello world" program. I'm not going to "reopen Bug". In the end it is your program so it is up to you. I am just providing polite feedback as requested. I am happy that I have got my copy working now, but thought these changes might help other new users to get started in compiling their c++ code using kdevelop. All the best, Matthew.
Thanks Matthew, but if you had used openSuSE instead of Kubuntu then it would have worked "out-of-the-box". So it is basically a Kubuntu bug.
For some reason responding to the BR mails doesn't work, so I post my answers again via the web interface: On 26.03.07 12:53:26, Matthew Brand wrote: > The thing is, when you install kdevelop, it does come with those > examples (like "simple Hello World"). Those are not "examples", they are project templates which happen to be buildable out-of-the-box. > I reckon that the first thing most new users will do is try to compile > and run the "simple hello world" program, I did. Sure. > Surely kdevelop ought to be able to build and run it's own shipped > examples "out of the box" with as little pain as possible, There's only little pain involved if you take the kdevelop, we provide. But you didn't for obvious reasons. > especially when they are tagged with the word "simple". I > just think it would be helpful to add some kind of warning (inside > kdevelop) that tells new users that they cannot expect that to happen > without installing those other bits of software. Well, yeah the templates mostly lack some good information, but unfortunately there's no way but providing this in the comments. You are welcome to go through the examples find out the requirements and change their descriptions. Then send the patch to the -devel list. > In my opinion, it is a bug that you can't run the examples "out of the > box" and that no warning or information is given to point you in the > right direction. At least for the simple hello world program, as well as the kde and qt examples: You can run them "out of the box", that is you took the kdevelop we provide. That said: I don't want the new-project-wizard taking 5 minutes to start because he tries to check wether all the deps for a given app-template exist. Not to mention that there's no way to define the requirements for a given project and there's no proper unified way to check for them. > I think that a lot of people will have simply given up and tried > something else the moment that the program failed to compile it's own > "simple hello world" program. Sure, if they found something that works better than KDevelop for them thats fine with me. I personally don't care too much about those people, I care about those that don't find a better replacement and want to use KDevelop. > I'm not going to "reopen Bug". In the end it is your program so it is > up to you. I am just providing polite feedback as requested. I am > happy that I have got my copy working now, but thought these changes > might help other new users to get started in compiling their c++ code > using kdevelop. Well, you're missing 1 thing here: You didn't take the kdevelop we (the kdevelop developers) provide, you took the package your distribution provides. That are two totally different things. I don't think we plan to add a package-management-thing to our application templates, they should be easily creatable. BTW: I don't know of _any_ ide out there that tells you which package to install if you try to use something in an application. For example Eclipse will only show you compiler errors if you use a class for which there's no .jar installed (i.e. tomcat stuff, or jdom or ...). This is something that package management tools should handle, thats why they exist in the first place. So to summarize: As I said before you're barking up the wrong tree here, you need to talk to the support of your distribution to make sure they provide the proper package dependecies. If I that was only a typo in the bugreport you're obviously using Kubuntu which is a debian-based distro and thus uses the .deb packaging format. This format allows to specify recommended and suggested packages and know what: gcc+autotools are suggested by the KDevelop package. So its really: RTFM, you have to make yourself familiar with the environment you're using, in this case Kubuntu and the adept package manager. Andreas PS: In case I sound harsh here or there: No offense meant, just trying to be clear.
And an answer to Amilcar's post: On 26.03.07 14:16:56, Amilcar do Carmo Lucas wrote: > Thanks Matthew, but if you had used openSuSE instead of Kubuntu then it would have worked "out-of-the-box". So it is +basically a Kubuntu bug. I disagree, its not a bug, its a feature. Packages like gdb, gcc, autotools, qmake and other are not needed to be able to use KDevelop. But they are suggested to be installed via the package management software. The problem is really that Matthew is not yet familiar with his packaging software. Andreas PS: I don't like SuSE ;)