Giving up on Gnucash

[Neil Williams]

On Saturday 23 April 2005 5:47 pm, Stephen Fisher wrote:

Please send to the list, not to ME!

> Thanks Neil:
> > So your original question doesn't stand. GnuCash is included in OSX
> > because
> > OSX includes the option of using Fink which includes GnuCash in it's
> > main
> > package archive. True, it is an immense download from a base OSX
> > system to
> > install X11, Fink and then GnuCash. That won't change. What you should
> > notice
> > is that upgrading an existing installation is far simpler. Optional
> > packages
> > are still deemed to be included in the distro, GnuCash is optional in
> > all
> > distributions AFAIK. It's hardly as essential as bash or perl.
>
> My comparison and where I'd like to see gnucash get to on OSX/X11 is
> something like openoffice.

Careful there, this is not how you install C applications on OSX UNLESS you 
have a licence from Apple.

> Getting X11 up and running is easy. It's on 
> the OSX disks you install it and done. With openoffice, you download a
> .dmg file, run the OSX type installer, click through a few buttons and
> done.

That's because of Java. You can't compare OOo with any other application, Mac 
or GNU, only with other Java apps and there aren't that many.

There are two ways to install a non-Java graphical program on OSX. 

1. You buy a licence from Apple and agree to their prohibitive terms to allow 
you to create a .dmg file that can be downloaded and installed just like 
iTunes. This is even harder than porting to Gnome2 - it's a completely new 
GUI. (We are not going down that road!)

2. You go via Fink and add a large amount of code that implements the GNU 
versions of the GUI.

Fink doesn't do .dmg - it can't be done without a slice of code from Apple. 
Fink does .deb which are Debian package archives and use Debian dependency 
information.

> Mysql, php, phpmyadmin and alot of other open source projects 
> feature similar simple installs.

Those would be console programs, they are simpler because they don't have to 
work with X11.

Compare with Anjuta, Bluefish, Gimp or Gedit - not with mysql, OOo or other 
incomparable programs.

Of course, now that you have GnuCash installed, all the others will install 
easily because they use the same libraries.
:-)

> My initial experience with gnucash: 
> lots of dependency problems when attempting fink install gnucash to a
> clean X11 build.

Of course you will, X11 includes no Gnome libraries, let alone Gnome2.

> In the end had to go through and install the 
> dependencies in specific order, piecemeal per the faq. Did not have
> this problem with any other fink install.

Guess what, the other installs used the libraries that GnuCash required. 
Naturally, they don't ask for them again.

> Users should not have to 
> consult a faq to install the software.

There are differences because of the reliance on Gnome1.4 which will disappear 
with G2 but there will still remain a large amount of code that needs to be 
installed in a specific order over a clean OSX/X11 install.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.dcglug.org.uk/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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