Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-programming (84 mails)

[Stefan Hundhammer <sh@xxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 18 August 2004 16:32, Colin Carter wrote:
> Hi Gurus,
> Sorry to sound ignorant, but after 38 years of coding, little
> problems still bug me, as I am a beginner with Linux.
> I am running SuSE 9.1
> Q1
> When I try to compile and link a program the system says that
> the XWindow functions are not defined.  That is, not found in
> the libraries.  But I cannot find any documentation (in the
> masses of it) which tell me how to link.  (I can manage the MS
> Windows API, but not the Linux.)

It depends on what toolkit you are using (see below) or, if you want to do 
very low-level X programming, what exactly you want to do.

Of course, you need to have the respective development packages installed.


> Q2
> I am running 64 bit Linux, but there appears to be no
> documentation about the arguments expected by SuSE XWindow.
> That is: are the normal 32 bit integers still 32 bit or
> change to 64 bit for function calls?  More importantly, where
> is the documentation?

An integer is an integer is an integer, and it's up to the library makers to 
take care how many bits they have. If a function prototype specifies "int", 
pass an int and be happy. If it specifies "UINT32", pass a UINT32. 


> Any help would be appreciated, especially a pointers into the
> documentation.  I have a stack of books on Linux, and
> there is  a million lines of information with which I am
> familiar with after 38 years of coding, but I cannot find
> the 'new' stuff required to transfer standard 32 bit Linux to
> 64 bit Linux, and I cannot find stuff which explains
> libraries.

I highly recommend reading this one to get a first understanding of the X 
Window system - even if you don't intend to program low-level with XLib:

	http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1565920023/

It seems to be really cheap in the UK:

	http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937175110/

As for anything else (including linker parameters), it depends on what toolkit 
you intend to use. There are several to choose from.

My personal favourite is Qt:

	http://doc.trolltech.com/3.3/index.html

This is the base for KDE.

But there is also Gtk, the base for GNOME, and there are several others - some 
somewhat dated (like Motif), some multi-platform (like WxWindows) that run on 
top of any of the others and on MS MFC.


CU
-- 
Stefan Hundhammer <sh@xxxxxxx>                Penguin by conviction.
YaST2 Development
SuSE Linux AG
Nuernberg, Germany