My Kingdom for a Decent Error Message
I just can't leave well enough alone. It's not good enough to build a wxWindows app on Windows, it has to run on Linux too. So I followed wxPython on Ubuntu installation instructions, but substituting in the latest version for the version given in the instructions. Unfortunately, the rpmbuild step failed; first the error was that it couldn't find a C compiler. It seems strange to me that Ubuntu's default install wouldn't include gcc or cc - Unix without a C compiler is like Windows without Notepad. Or something. Anyway, I installed gcc and then rpmbuild failed with an error to the effect of "can't find a definition for strcasecmp". Well, that's strange. I wasted a couple hours poking around, trying to figure out what that meant, then decided that since I was runnig Hoary, maybe Breezy would fix things. A half day later, no dice. Hey, at least I'm running the latest Ubuntu. Anyway, I decided that maybe I should try building the version listed in the instructions, it's not much older. Bingo, almost. Now the error is different, this time rpmbuild can't figure out what C++ compiler I'm using. This message I can understand, so I install g++ and away we go. The build is still churning but it looks like it will succeed.
The kicker is, though, that I went back and decided to run the build on the latest wxPython source RPM, just because. And now this build is working; again, not completed yet but past the problem finding strcasecmp. So the problem isn't that rpmbuild can't find strcasecmp, it can't find g++. I should have given up on building wxPython, but I've never been one for making decisions based upon any sensible criteria.
I've had a number of flirtations with Linux, going back to about 1994, but I've never gotten very far. One big reason that I've never given up Windows as my main OS has always been either a hardware or an application problem, I was always missing something. Now hardware support is pretty good and application-wise, the last holdout has been Quicken, but there are good free alternatives to that now. Maybe better alternatives, Quicken in recent years has become an intrusive annoyance. But now the languages I'm interested in run well on Linux, my application needs are fairly modest, and Windows has become more of a burden. Ubuntu looks very pretty - someone has taken on the grunt work of making packaging and appearance just work, and done a great job with it. Right now I'm holding it at arm's length in a Virtual PC, but I my main desktop at home has been sitting idle for about 6 months; I may well just repave the thing and try living the Linux life for real.