I have Slackware 13.1 with KDE as my desktop environment. When I installed it, I chose the easy, "Install Everything" option, mostly because I am lazy and am prone to screwing things up when it comes to more advanced installation options.

Yesterday, I tried to install Quanta Plus, and when I ran ./configure, I got an error that says:
Or something like that. I'm no superhero when it comes to computers, but I'm pretty sure that I installed this correctly, especially since I chose the easy installation route that I doubt warrants having a brain to do (it's like turning on a Gameboy for the first time). But I don't understand why this so called "important program" is "missing". What is there that I need to check? And does checking the installation involve reinstalling?

I would check Google to see if I can download kde-config, but I fear that when I try to compile it, it will tell me that kde-config is missing.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi -
Sooo-

Q: Did you install KDE 3.5 or KDE 4?

Q: Does everything pretty much "work" with your current KDE?

Q: Does "Quanta Plus" want KDE 3.5 (it sounds like it), KDE4, or can you choose (either by downloading a different version, or configuring thing differently?

I installed the Slackware 13.1 DVD, and according to the Slackware website, it has KDE SC version 4.4.3.

Everything seems to work. But Quanta isn't the first time I got this error message (perhaps I should have mentioned that before). I got this same message when using Fedora 14 with KDE as my desktop environment. It happened like last week, and I just kind of brushed it off since the Bluefish installation had worked just fine. Yesterday, though, I decided I would like to try Quanta, and I was pretty sure (for no reason in particular), that Quanta would work with Slackware's version of KDE.

I have no idea how to make that determination. Is it possible to replace my current version of KDE without reinstalling Slackware?
I didn't see any options for a different configuration that would alter KDE.

Is Quantaplus even in development? The Wikipedia page for Quanta Plus states that the last release of a stable version was 3 years ago, and I can't reach the homepage mentioned on that page.

I did some searching around, and this seems to be the case. So I guess that leaves me with some more questions:

Why is it that these things aren't backwards compatible? During my searches, I came across a few people that said that there are web developers stuck using KDE 3.5 because they use Quanta. But why is kde-config not in KDE 4? You go through a handful of man pages, and you see commands that are available even though they are deprecated (or something like fdisk still being around when cfdisk exists). Why couldn't kde-config (the now presumably deprecated version) still be around?
That's along the lines of upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04. Quite frankly, I was appalled at what was going on inside my computer monitor.

Is it possible to install KDE 3.5 without an installation of an older version of Slackware?

Would it be a bad idea to try to install kde-config, now that the program has been renamed kde4-config as to not conflict with the KDE 3 version of the program (if it's even findable)? Or perhaps I can go into the script and change every instance of kde-config to kde4-config, and hope that a fire doesn't start?

But this isn't crucial here. No one's going to combust if I don't get to try Quanta. I'm just curious as to what all the fuss is about.

I wouldn't recommend to begin using an application that is not supported anymore. If you want to install KDE 3.5 on Slackware 13.37, I think there is a thread about that in the Slackware forum.

Because there is a limited amount of manpower in the development teams. The simply don't have spare developers to work on backwards compatibility for apps that aren't supported anymore.

Hi -

Philosophically, a primary goal of "closed source" is to keep you ignorant, lazy and as helplessly dependent on your vendor as possible.

Suggestion:
In the spirit of "open source", you might wish to:
1) look at the Quanta Plus "configure" script
2) change the "kde-config" to "kde4-config"
3) if it works, contribute your enhanced "configure" script as a patch to the Quanta Plus project

'Just a thought .. PSM