Re: tlug: Problems with libraries

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

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tlug note from "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>
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>>>>> "Alan" == Alan B Stone <stoneab@example.com> writes:

    Alan> I know I probaly asked this question before but....I lost
    Alan> most of my old emails recently when reloading the system.

We may not know how to run the compiler yet, but we've mastered
distributed database technology!

    Alan> I'm trying to do some work for school with C++ and Motif.
    Alan> However, when I try to compile the programs I continually
    Alan> get errors stating that the included libs do not exists,
    Alan> which I know is not the case.  I have been using the
    Alan> following command line "g++ hello.C -
    Alan> l/usr/X11R6/include/Xm/Xm.h -l/usr/X11R6/include/Xm/Label.h

A couple of people provided fixes, I'm not going to repeat them as I'd 
probably just make a typo.

But this shows severe confusion about the process.  I'm pretty sure
there are good self-study texts on GCC; you should get one and read
it.  If you can do it, it may be a short cut to simply dive into the
info pages for GCC and the binutils, but these are very dense and
really oriented toward the experienced programmer, and in many cases,
toward the experienced GCC programmer.

<< Anybody know of such a text?  There are several in the Tsukuba-dai
   bookstore in Japanese, but I don't know if they're any good.
   A recommendation (any _natural_ language) would be appreciated for
   future reference.                                                  >> 

This is not meant as a flame.  Nobody on this list minds answering the 
same question more than once.  But going all the way to the basics:

"The first program to write is the same for all languages:

    Print the words
        hello, world

 This is the basic hurdle; to leap over it you have to be able to
 create the program text somewhere, compile it successfully, load it,
 run it, and find out where your output went.  With these mechanical
 details mastered, everything else is comparatively easy."
    --Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie,
      The C Programming Language

I've personally tripped over every single one of the subtasks listed
in the quote sometime in the last month.  (Details on request.)  The
particular system you've picked to work with was not exactly designed
to make any of the above easy:

"djgpp is a complete 32-bit C and C++ development environment for DOS. 
 This product is intended for users who have experience using Unix, not
 DOS users who expect djgpp to act like any other DOS compiler.  This is
 NOT the software you want if you want to learn programming. "
    -- D. J. Delorie, "README.1ST" DJGPP

Although this was written about the DOS version of GCC, it basically
applies to the versions targeted at other operating systems as well.

Unless the assignment is extremely limited, and you never expect to
use GCC with Motif (or other 3rd party libraries and includes) again,
you _will_ run into the same stupid (that is, that's what _you_ will
call the second time around) error again.  At least, if you're
anything like me....  Save yourself a lot of future headaches, and
carefully study how the programming system works and how it interacts
with the environment.  It will repay you, and people who ask your
advice (and they will :-) many, many times.

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tel: +81 (298) 53-5091;  Fax: 55-3849              turnbull@example.com
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