[Omaha.pm] Preparation for use of GD::Graph & Perl

[Jay Hannah]

philip terry wrote:
> Concerning installation (on Mac G5 OS X 10.4.3) of up to six libraries in preparation for installation of GD-2.30 Perl module from CPAN (and finally GD::Graph to practice graphing with Perl).
> The six are: (in tentative order of installation)
> 1. XPM  (koala.ilog.fr/lehors/xpm.html)
> 2. FreeType-2.1.10 (www.freetype.org)
> 3. JPEG (jpegsrc.vb6) (www.ijg.org/)
> 4. zlib (www.gzip.org/zlib/) (zlib-1.2.3)
> 5. libpng (www.3-t.com/pub/png/libpng.html) (libpng-1.2.8-config)
> 6. gd-2.0.33 (libgd) (www.boutell.com/gd/)
> 
> Some questions:
> 
> i. Do I need XPM?  It is listed as optional.  What does it do?  Perhaps works with X Windows?  To install it, it asks for "imake".  If don't have "imake', then a makefile is provided.  But, suggests one may need to edit it before use?

When my goal is to play with a specific Perl mondule, I always just install the required prerequisites. If you're interested in XPM itself and want to play with it, by all means do so. But in my mind, if I don't know what something is or does, don't worry about it. Witht that mindset I can usually prep a box for what I want to play with in 10 minutes or less, and start playing. There are an infinite number of tangents out there, and I try not to pursue them all simultaneously. :)

That said, the bad news about playing with graphical stuff in Perl is that the prereqs there (GD and the family you mention) are the heaviest set of prereqs I've run into anywhere in Perl (except downloading 2.6GB of genetic sequencing data -grin-). The first time I got GD and family working on Linux it probably took me 2 hours. Now I think I can usually do it in 30m on Linux. I've never done it on a Mac. The good news about this stuff is that once you have it set up, its set up for all graphical applications, Perl and others (my photo gallery system on my web site uses ImageMagik which uses GD, for instance). 

I always install from source. Package management systems could very well make it easier sometimes, on some platforms, but are a hit and miss proposition in my experience.  

> ii. As makefiles are specific to a particular compilation & installation, one needs to know information about the current installation, like location of directories to place files in, etc.  It would help to have some experience writing makefiles.

On Linux "make" usually just works w/o having to understand anything about what's happening. Mac may be different. (I do all my heavy lifting on Linux, my Mac is just my handy laptop workstation.) 

> iii. Any advice on what to think about installing XPM in this situation?

Sounds like you don't know what it is and its not required. So my advice would be: Don't install it. :)

I hope that helps. Want to bring your Mac to our next meeting and we'll have a mini "Install Fest" reminiscent of the Omaha Linux Users Group? :)

j