Gnucash 2.6.10 question - Why WebKit ?

[John Ralls]

> On Dec 28, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Arno <nvana_31 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear John,
> 
> Thanks for your email. I have indeed been trying to 'tweak' the 2.4.13 version which I have been using for years on CentOS 6 to build on CentOS 7. 
> 
> I did manage, by doing nasty tweaks in the 'configure' files of GNUcash (for example changing the requirement for 'libgtkhtml-3.14' (which I don't have the .pc pkg-config file for) to 'libgtkhtml-4.0', to build the executable. 
> 
> By tweaking I am able to build a binary for GNUcash 2.4.13, but it doesn't work. 
> 
> It gives me the dreaded 'GTK2 / GTK3 symbols issue '* 22:37:49 OTHER <Gtk> GTK+ 2.x symbols detected. Using GTK+ 2.x and GTK+ 3 in the same process is not supported'. 
> 
> As 2.6.x needs a WebKit version I don't have and 2.4.x does not normally compile (and with tweaks gives the GTK2/3 issue), I contacted the GNUcash mailing list.
> 
> And for me I don't really need the fancy clickable reports, I only use GNUcash for our company to do the bookkeeping. Opening the reports in Firefox or Chromium would be fine for me. 
> 
> I have the feeling GNUcash is halfway in between a web based app and a normal app and that makes it overly complex.
> 
> Maybe make 3.x web based only ? Then the user can decide if he likes to use Firefox, IE or Chromium.
> 
> ---
> 
> Ps. Yes: I have been trying to remove all the 'open_url' and callback kind of functions from GNUcash 2.6.10, but it seems for the outsider like me a job for weeks to resolve all the complications of that change.  
> 
> Upto now I was able to stay far away from using repos like EPEL on CentOS 7 which has given me many unresolvable dependancy issues over the years I did use it on RHEL 5 and 6.
> 
> Yes: I have also been trying to install WebKit in my /opt/devel/libs directory just for use with GNUcash, but I can't compile WebKit linked to GTK2 as I have a GTK3 system it seems. I thought about compiling GTK2 (and all the reqs) myselves but that seems like a mile too far for me. (Then I will run GNUcash in Wine or in VMWare if it is not Wine proof).
> 
> But to me (as a Linux advocate) it seems strange to have to run a Linux app under virtualisation like Wine, VMWare or Docker with all the overhead involved.
> 
> ---
> 
> I tend to compile all the needed apps myselves and install them in /opt. These are for example the libs I needed for Mplayer, Xine, VLC, Kodi 14 & 15 which have been installed in /opt/multimedia/codecs:
> 
> a52dec        libaudiofile  libmicrohttpd  libtinyxml    portaudio
> cpptest     libbluray      libmms     libungif      qjson
> enca        libcdio      libmodplug     libusb        sdl1
> faad2        libdca      libmpeg2     libva           sdl2
> fame        libdreamdvd   libmpeg3     libvorbis     sox
> ffmpeg        libdrm      libmpg123     libx264       speex
> fftw        libdv      libnfs     libxcb        sqlite
> flac        libdvbcsa      libogg     libxmlccwrap  taglib
> fluidsynth  libdvbpsi      liboggz     libxrandr     trousers
> frei0r        libdvbsi++      libpciaccess     lirc           uhd
> fribidi     libdvdcss      libpng     mad           uriparser
> gettext     libdvdnav      librtlsdr     mjpegtools    v4l-utils
> glew        libdvdplay      libsamplerate  mlt           vcdimager
> gperf        libdvdread      libsidplay1     mp4v2           vorbis-tools
> id3lib        libextractor  libsidplayfp     musepack      wavpack
> jack        libfaac      libsigc++     openal        xorgmacros
> jasper        libjpeg      libsndfile     opencv        xvidcore
> lame        libjpegturbo  libssh     openexr       yajl
> libao        libjs      libtheora     pcre           yasm
> libass        liblzo2      libtiff     polkit        zziplib

Arno,

Please remember to copy the list on all replies.

Geert has already replied to you showing that it's not only possible to build on Centos7 but that he has a nightly build set up on a Centos 7 machine from which you can download a ready-to-go binary.

No surprise that you got the Gtk2/3 mixing error with gtkhtml-4, but if you like to build apps and their dependencies from source I don't see why you say that gtkhtml3 is unavailable: Its sources are readily available on ftp.gnome.org.

GnuCash isn't a web app and most of our users would rebel if it was: The security aspects of placing sensitive financial data on the web are manifold. We simply chose HTML as a convenient way to make pretty reports. You're right that the reports could be written out to file and loaded in an external browser, though most people would find it rather clumsy. 

Regards,
John Ralls