gnucash pkg for Slack

[Neil Williams]

On Wednesday 27 October 2004 2:16 am, Susan wrote:
> > Google for gnucash + Slackware. There is a website out there that covers
> > your perdicament with dependencies, and does a damn good job of it too.
> > You'll find there links to some stuff and lists of what you'll need to
> > get gnucash up and running. It's lengthy, but quite doable; I got it
> > right on the second try. Besides, you're running Slack; this sort of
> > hoop-jumping should be second nature to you ;). I also seem to recall a
> > package being built by some third party. But you have to look for it.
>
> I'm well aware of how to use Google, thanks.  The problem lies in the
> "lengthy" part.  I simply don't have time.

That's the thing about distributions like Slackware, they may require more of 
your time than other distributions. It sounds like you should invest your 
time in switching to Debian where gnucash is just 'apt-get install gnucash'.

> As much as I love to tinker, 
> I need certain essentials (like fluxbox, gnucash, Xorg, firefox, t-bird,
> etc) up and running with little time and effort.

As mentioned, this is an artefact of how Slackware have setup the base system. 
As soon as only Gnome2 is used, GnuCash setup becomes a very lengthy process 
- this is not the fault of GnuCash.

> However, I have a toddler, and a job, and a husband on deployment
> readiness status, and a life.  Despite popular opinion, package managers
> aren't just for those who are scared of ./configure make make install,
> they are also for people with lives.

True, but the package manager must rely on the base system. If the base system 
doesn't include the libraries for Gnome 1.4, they will have to be installed 
before GnuCash can install. It's either that or join the team porting GnuCash 
to Gnome2 and get that working.

There's no quick solution. Your options are:
1. The lengthy route on current Slackware (involving installing lots and lots 
of Gnome1.4 stuff and (by the sounds of it) a fair bit of juggling and 
googling.)
2. The longish route of switching to Debian. (If you have >5Gb spare, this 
does NOT mean deleting or overwriting your existing Slackware config.)
3. The very, very long route of contributing to GnuCash on Gnome2 and getting 
that out of the door. This will help a large number of people, not just 
yourself, as in the other options.

Overall, I'd say that option 2 would take the least time but then I'm biased.

However, in my own case, I faced the same kind of non-options when I wanted to 
import GnuCash invoices from my Palm. I chose the very, very long route of 
building the code myself and I've been a thorn in Derek's side ever since!!
:-))

I felt it was better to build something to benefit everyone than to do some 
juggling with the current XML backend that probably wouldn't have worked 
anyway. I've made time to do that and other things have suffered because of 
that decision. We all have paid employment outside GnuCash, we all have other 
projects and a home life and a social life, we all sleep and go shopping. 
Just 'having a life' isn't a reason to not get involved in contributing to 
the codebase and although not everyone can find such time - everyone is 
grateful for those who do.

> student who had time for it.  I go back every once in a while because I
> miss Slack, but inevitably get turned off by the lack of available
> packages.

If people with your motivation can't find the time to create such packages 
themselves, then the situation will never improve. It's not about finding a 
package, it's about finding someone with the motivation AND the time to 
create and update the package. The source code for all the stuff you need is 
readily available, what's missing is someone with the time and need to 
package it.You are extremely unlikely to get someone who doesn't already use 
Slackware to create Slackware packages.

> If only there were more packages out there, and they were 
> kept more up-to-date, I would be a Slacker forever.

Such are those who don't use Debian.

> P.S. -- Kudos to gnucash for having become so important to my sanity
> that I'm willing to change distros for you. ;)

:-)

Can we become so essential that you also find time to join the work too?

It happened to me (so let that be a warning to everyone!).

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
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