Philipp Thomas wrote:
* Paul W. Abrahams (abrahams@valinet.com) [20000215 18:46]:
Do you happen to know if gcc and/or gccfront are necessary in order to build the latest Emacs release from Gnu sources?
I don't know, as I won't ever use emacs, so I've as yet had no reason to compile it.
It would be very useful if the next SuSE manual explained the distinctions among the various gcc-related compilers and libraries.
I'm afraid that's out of the reach for the manual. But it will get easier with 6.4. People who compile the code themselves are expected to know enough to deal with the problems that may arise.
Questions about what compilers and libraries to use come up all the time and are one of the most troublesome aspects of installing Linux software.
Most people don't need the compiler and associated tools, as they use the binary packages. One of the reasons is, that they don't get free support from us for self compiled programs or kernels (simply because the list of possible configurations is nearly indefinite).
As I stated above, those that compile programs themself are expected to know enough to handle possible problems and/or failures.
That might be a reasonable assumption if the SuSE distribution were all-inclusive, but it isn't and there's no hope that it ever will be. Just look at how many references there are in threads in this group to programs that one can pick up from the Net or from other sources. Most Linux programs are distributed in source form (the ones that come with SuSE aside), and users are expected to be able to compile those programs themselves. I agree that we can't expect SuSE to provide support for software that SuSE hasn't distributed. But a couple of pages in the manual on dealing with external software, with whatever disclaimers you might want to attach, would be exceedingly useful. Just look at how many posts there are about problems that people have as the result of having the wrong version of a compiler or library installed. Paul Abrahams -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/