Some questions about the linux version

[Christian Uceda]

Hi,

I just became a registered user of PB and as a curiosity I played a bit with the Linux version on an Ubuntu 10.10 beta. Bear in mind that I did not buy PB for the Linux version, I did it for the Windows one.

On my test I tried to make a small GUI app, it did not work, I compiled it and tested it on other Linux boxes, it did not work either on a Debian server nor any of my older Ubuntu's, but at least the behaviour was consistent.

But let's say the results were less than stellar (have a look at the picture, and the worst part wasn't the GUI oddities, but I understand Ubuntu 10.10 is a beta right now)



What I want to know is how reliable are PB programs on Linux, I mean: if I compile something on let's say a Debian Lenny and I move it to an Ubuntu 9.04, what can I expect? I mean beside the library dependency issues. Is there a list of officially supported distros? Can PB on Linux compile static versions of binaries? What are the reasonable expectations for executable longevity?

Before anyone thinks bad, I do not mean to say that Linux's PB is bad or anything like that. What happens is that I know out of experience that Linux as a platform is a moving target, Kernel, APIS, ABIS, libraries and X server/video drivers break every five minutes, anything which is not an officially sanctioned Distro like Redhat Enterprise/Debian Stable is expected to break and to break often. For a non FOSS software product made by a small team supporting an environment like Linux it means a lot of work, which makes me wonder about how safe is for me to bet on spending time releasing apps based on PB.

So I would like to hear the experience from people who use it.

[dhouston]

I've had far more problems with the various flavors of Linux than with PB. Nearly every major update to a distro has broken something (and usually something major). At the moment, I don't have Ubuntu available (I installed Windows 7 on that HDD) but do have Kubuntu 10.04 and see no problems with my PB app under it. OTOH, Fedora 13 will not even let me compile and an executable compiled under Debian exhibits some problems when running under Fedora 13. I usually have all of the operating systems listed below...

Mac Mini (Intel) 10.6.2
Dell Dimension 2400 W98SE,W2K,XP,Vista,Windows-7,Debian,Ubuntu,Kubuntu,Xubuntu,Fedora,Mandriva (on swappable HDDs)

Most of the problems I have encountered are independent of PB and traceable to differences in the Linux distros. I have not seen the problem illustrated in your pix.

[DoctorLove]

Well, you have a problem with GTK.

I think with the new beta of Ubuntu, they also upgraded GTK to a new version.
This has broken something.

[Christian Uceda]

@dhouston

What you describe is what I'm expecting to find on the Linux version: "Distro Hell"

@DoctorLove

I know, It's obvious, I pointed out in my comment that I tried on an Ubuntu beta, and I was putting the blame there and not on PB. Btw for me each new release of Ubuntu runs worse than the last.

I'm only asking about people's experience with PB in Linux.

[dhouston]

@dhouston
What you describe is what I'm expecting to find on the Linux version: "Distro Hell"`.

Yes - I agree. But, in case my earlier answer wasn't clear, I've had very few problems with PB even on flaky distros. By and large, PB has been fine. I'm not yet sure whether one issue is a PB issue or a gtk+ issue, and the Fedora 13 issue appears to be that there is no version of the xine lib for Fedora 13 - at least, I cannot find one that satisfies PB..

[John Duchek]

I am using Mandriva Linux. After I read the readme that told me all the other items that had to be installed and made sure they were I have had less trouble with PB under linux than I have had under windows. (I have a long running problem in the windows (XP) version on all my computers. Everytime I hit F1 for help, PB closes. It drives me nuts.) No one else reports the problem and so it is likely an interaction between pb and another program that has usurped the F1 button. I still haven't been able to deal with it.

Anyway, I am very pleased with the Linux version.
John

[Robynsveil]

I have installed all the required files as per the instruction under Ubuntu 12.04 (Mint 13 is basically Ubuntu 12.04). Loading, PB is happy. Yet I have nil output from the most simple code, such as this:

Code: Select all

If OpenConsole()
  PrintN("1. Official PureBasic Home")
  PrintN("2. Official PureBasic Forums")
  PrintN("3. PureArea.net")
  PrintN("")
  PrintN("Enter a number from 1 To 3 and press Return: ")
  Destination.s = Input()
  Select Destination
    Case "1"
      RunProgram("http://www.purebasic.com")
    Case "2"
      RunProgram("http://forums.purebasic.com")
    Case "3"
      RunProgram("http://www.purearea.net")
    EndSelect
  EndIf
End

I am totally getting the feeling that Linux support for PB is a hastily added feature without any real substance to it. PB is thoroughly Windows-centric... I am regretting having invested in this.

[Erlend]

You example will not give any results when run normally, but create a executable and run that from console and it will give the expected results.

That beeing said RunProgram("url") will not work either, it will possibly work on Windows but on linux you must use something like this:
RunProgram("firefox","www.purebasic.com","")

[Kukulkan]

Windows:
RunProgram(uri.s)

Linux:
RunProgram("xdg-open", uri.s, "")

Mac:
RunProgram("open", uri.s, "")

[Robynsveil]

You example will not give any results when run normally, but create a executable and run that from console and it will give the expected results.

That beeing said RunProgram("url") will not work either, it will possibly work on Windows but on linux you must use something like this:
RunProgram("firefox","www.purebasic.com","")

Thank you, Erland. I really do have a lot to learn, don't I? I think I might just focus on getting my head around the manual first - as was kindly suggested by Fred - and if I get really really stuck, I'll come back here and more humbly ask for help.

Thank you again for the pointer, Erland...

[Robynsveil]

Windows:
RunProgram(uri.s)

Linux:
RunProgram("xdg-open", uri.s, "")

Mac:
RunProgram("open", uri.s, "")

Way excellent... I'll give that a go. Thank you, Kukulkan!