[gtkada] installing Gtkada / GTK+ 2.0 in Ubuntu 9.04

[Ludovic Brenta]

Rob Groen writes:
> Don 't think I need 2.14 specifically. It was the version that Adacore 
> on their Libre site provides.
> I looked at the Synaptic package manager, but when I marked 
> libgtkada2-dev then it showed an enormous list of additional required 
> packages, including gnat 4.3, g++, X11 related etc etc, so that I 
> thought that libgtkada2-dev was intended for Gtkada developers. i.e. 
> people who work on and improve Gtkada, not a simple end user like me. 
> Since I already installed GNAT I also was not sure in what way this 
> could interfere. And since for GNAT there is only a doinstall, and not a 
> douninstall, I am a bit reluctant to just do "rm -r /usr/gnat" ...)
> (Note I want to migrate from Windows XP to Linux/Ubuntu. I have some 
> past Unix experience but that was way back....)

The GtkAda from AdaCore has the same dependencies as the Debian packages
but, since it is a source-only distribution, it lists the dependencies
in a README file for you, the user, to read and understand.  For example
it depends on GTK+ and you were correctly wondering how to install that
since you are required to install it by yourself.  The purpose of the
Debian packages is to automate all this and save you the work of
compiling everything.  The price you pay is a slightly older version of
the libraries and compiler.

The -dev packages in Debian are not for the developers of the libraries;
they are for application developers who want to use the libraries in
their programs.  (The developers of GtkAda use the sources from the
Subversion repository directly, not a package.)

So, if you are uncomfortable compiling everything and keeping track of
dependencies by hand, I suggest that Debian offers an easier solution.

(Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian and uses the Debian packages, possibly
modified.  That's why my discussion above is relevant to you.  However,
I have no involvement, control or knowledge of Ubuntu, so I am not
responsible for any bugs or discrepancies that Ubuntu may introduce in
their packages.)

-- 
Ludovic Brenta
Debian maintainer of libgtkada.