0.92.1 - Problems with xgettext
 

Hi,

I never had any problems compiling gtk-gnutella on my Slackware 9.0/ Linux 2.4.21/ gcc 3.3.1 system until version 0.92.1 Candidate. Unfortunately I can't compile 0.92.1 final. The problem's source seems to be my version of xgettext, which doesn't support some parts of the configuration file. Can anybody who successfuly compiled 0.92.1 tell me which version of xgettext is compatible with it?

Regards,
Fedor

While I don't know the version you need, I was able to manually generate the gnutella.po file using the xgettext supplied by Solaris. I also had to make a stamp-po file, to stop the MAKE from trying to build it all over again. I finally removed the reference to 'po' in the targets in the Makefile. Since I am only using the 'C' locale, or sometimes the UTF-8_en_us locales, there is no difference between the plain text and the translated ones. So I don't really need them anyway, or at least not for testing.

I'd highly recommend that the development team, or who ever is in charge of the portability effort for the product, make an effort to find ways to use the native tools on each platform.

The version of xgettext they use is clearly a GNU-only program, since it uses many non-standard switches. There are really no reasons to use them, except to add some special things like the copyright, and where to send bug reports. That could be handled in an entirely different way, and then only standard options would be needed, allowing almost any xgettext version to work.

I'm also very annoyed that they have used NON-ANSI-C (GNU specific) extensions in the source code. These are illegal in any compiler except for gcc/g++, and prevent the code from being ported without a lot of effort.

Keeping in mind that we already have to port 10 third-party library packages before we can even attempt to build gtk-gnutella, and we already have enough work to do. These things need to be removed from the code, and the code brought back into line with standard ansi C.

I'd love to see the dev team be forced to do a port to Solars, HPUX, AIX, or another commercial platform, using a commercial compiler. It would really open their eyes. Sort of like holding their feet to the coals, if you know what I mean.... ;-)

If all else fails, disable NLS support during your config run, and just don't build the internationalization files. Otherwise, I think you will have to get the right version of gettext from the dev team.

Regards,
--Rockkeys