Ecere under Slacko 5.5 Puppy Linux

Help understanding and fixing compiling errors.
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nickdobrinich
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 9:24 am

Ecere under Slacko 5.5 Puppy Linux

Post by nickdobrinich »

Ecere compile notes for Puppy Linux Slacko 5.5 (released 3/6/2013)
This is the current Puppy flagship distro.
This version with the 3.4.17-PAE kernel runs like lightning in a bottle.
ISO available here: http://01micko.com/slacko5.5/
You will also need the devx_slacko_5.5.sfs to compile Ecere.

I could not run a clean compile of Ecere until I symlinked ffi.h and ffitarget.h
from: /usr/lib/libffi-3.0.11/include/
to: /usr/include/

Only problem found is with the menu bar.
In the IDE menu, File Edit etc items do not drop down.
Same for apps with a menu bar as well.
Moving the mouse over these items highlights them but they do not drop down.
Alt hotkeys work if they have been defined.
Toolbar items work as expected to rebuild, compile and run.
Quite quick.
jerome
Site Admin
Posts: 608
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:16 pm

Re: Ecere under Slacko 5.5 Puppy Linux

Post by jerome »

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the notes.

Which version of Ecere are you compiling, by the way?

And is this a 32 or 64 bit OS?

On Debian, the ffi symlinks were also wrongly symlinked to i686-linux-gnu/ instead of i386-linux-gnu/ . I did add to the Makefile however something to work around that:

-I/usr/include/i686-linux-gnu

It's likely a bug in the Puppy libffi package?

About the menu bar, which Desktop Environment / Window Manager are you running?
It is likely a misunderstanding between the Ecere runtime X11 driver and the window manager.
These are quite common, and it is quite hard to get things right, because X11 really lacked standards , and there are so many window managers and they all work differently.
The Free Desktop initiative is the closest things there is to a standard ( http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/ ), but often times the blame can be put on the window manager not supporting the basic hints that Ecere expect to integrate properly.

Help is badly needed and welcome to improve the Ecere WM integration with the various window managers out there.

Regards,

Jerome
nickdobrinich
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 9:24 am

Re: Ecere under Slacko 5.5 Puppy Linux

Post by nickdobrinich »

[EDIT]
Confirmed, the culprit is the JWM window manager.
Switching to Openbox fixed it.

Yes, I believe you are correct about the windows manager being the source of this problem.
In this case it is Joe's Window Manager JWM.
I've had other quirks with it and usually switch to Openbox if available.
I don't know if I can be of much WM help other than to test and report.

I am compiling ecere-sdk-314fabd on 32 bit distros on low end 64 bit hardware.
I've had the best luck with the Puppy Linux LupuLibre and LupuPlusLibre 5.28 versions.

Per your advice, I d/l the latest Ecere git build.
And flailed away trying to get a 64 bit version working on Lighthouse Puppy LHP64 5.15F.
Ecere IDE compiles but dies with a seg fault, probably from something bad I did to it.
Surprisingly for a 64 bit distro LHP64 is not so speedy.
I was hoping for scary fast.

But the 32 bit version of Slacko 5.5 with the 3.4 PAE kernel runs like the wind.
Even faster if I enable parallel jobs on 2 threads.
Certainly speeds up my edit, compile, crash cycle.

Unrelated to compiler problems on odd distros, thank you for the PPT slides detailing EDA.
I need to move an old 140 program app to drive a new SQLite backend and you gave me the template and tools to work from.
So very helpful to see working code, properly indented in the one true K&R style, explained clearly.
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