[PyKDE] Error compiling PyKDE

[Jim Bublitz]

On Friday 15 October 2004 10:48, gerard.vermeulen at grenoble.cnrs.fr wrote:

> Sorry, Jim. I was too fast with finger pointing. A look in the Mandrake
> patches for KDE-3.2.3 confirms that Mandrake changed the API of their
> header files.

> It comes as a shock to me that a distribution can change the API that
> much (it is a pain for developers and PyKDE must catch them all).

No problem - it always surprises me when distributors make changes. I suspect 
it comes from trying to stay on top of the latest KDE release, because most 
of the problems look like leftovers from earlier (probably beta) releases 
rather than things that actually need to be changed to make KDE functional.

> Maybe it is possible to make a tool which parses the g++ compiler errors
> and suggest possible fixes, mails the fixes to you and/or some public
> repository *and* the guilty Linux distributor :-).
> Nowadays the compiler errors are so clear that I could suggest the fix by
> looking at the sip file in question (without seeing the header file).
> So, it looks possible to catch most of those unofficial API changes
> automatically.

The fixes are usually pretty simple. Roberto Alsina pointed out that at least 
some distros include an /etc/*release file (eg I have /etc/SuSE-release on 
this system). I can use that to tailor a version with configure.py if it's 
present on enough distributions.

To answer my own question about how to implement this: I think enough people 
use PyKDE for "personal" applications that it makes sense to make all usable 
features available. That would mean (in the case in this thread), that 
setFileName would be available to everyone except Mandrake users. People who 
write applications for more general use would need to be aware that 
setFileName isn't available on Mandrake, but that's no different than what a 
C++ programmer would have to do in the current situation.

The philosophy behind PyKDE has always been to make as much of KDE available 
as is reasonably possible and I'd like to continue that.

Once again, I'm not picking on Mandrake - similar things happen on every 
distribution.

Jim