I want to install Gnome on Slackware 12. A website called gnomeslackbuild.org sounds like a good place to start because I know all about SlackBuilds. SlackBuilds.org, organized by my pals, rworkman, rob0, BP, alienBOB and others, host scripts Slackware users can use to install applications from source that Pat V doesn’t package by default in Slackware. On Slackbuilds.org, for every application, there is:
+ a link to the tar ball
+ a SlackBuild script
+ a slack-desc file
+ an information file
+ a README file
I expected to find these exact things for Gnome on gnomeslackbuild.org. But instead, I see a guide to installing pre-made gnome Slackware packages using slapt-get, a method rabidly discouraged by the Slackware experts in ##slackware on FreeNode. What the fsck? Why? Why is it called gnomeslackbuilds if they show you how to install using slapt-get?

If you want to build Gnome from sources, try Garnome or gware. Gware has an ISO install of binaries, or you can download the slackbuilds and do it yourself.

http://www.gware.org/
ftp://ftp.gware.org/12.0/2.20.3/source
http://www.gnome.org/projects/garnome/

There is really no such thing as a 'standard' SlackBuild. The ones from SlackBuilds.org are usually more complete than the official ones from Slackware. Even those from SlackBuilds.org are not all completely standardized -it depends on who wrote the script and how they view things. For instance, the builds written by Robby don't usually include the ability to download the sources for you if they are nopt already on your system, while those by Erik usually do include this facility.
Some of the official build scripts are rather old and will look quite incomplete compared to newer ones.
The available build 'systems' for building package groups like GNOME or X11R7 usually follow a sort of semi-automated process for cerating/updating the build scripts, simply because there are so many packages that must be built. Trying to keep a series of 150-300 related scripts updated is quite a lot of work -even if you only spend 5 minutes on each script it quickly turns into a *lot* of time. Also, building series of packages which depend on each other, again like GNOME and X, requires that the packages be built and installed in a certain order. This is why there are usually other scripts involved which run the whole process from start to finish.
If you want to build GNOME, X or similar series all from sources, you are in for lots of work and adventure -and lots of questions and learning. If you aren't that interested in doing all that, it's much simpler to install pre-made packages. If you decide to build your own and keep them current, you'll probably wind up spending most of your computing time on the project -you'll notice that anyone who works on a gnome-build project doesn't have any other projects going -there simply aren't enough hours in the day...

i think GSB is the same old "freerock gnome"
anyway i installed gsb, and not happy with that,
earleir i used gware for slack11 and was quite good.

Yep... My DIY build has been collecting cob webs due to gnome on Slackware. So much so that I pretty much use Slackware exclusively now...

There is still JHbuild if your interested in that. Don't know if you want to build every single one by hand or not. There is no such project that I know of that isn't automated in one way or another. If your interested in just finding out a build order, you can have a look at what I have going on here:
http://jaguarlinux.com/pub/slackware/source/

Back in the 2.8 -2.16 days I only built 80-100 packages but it has been slowing growing as Gnome does (along with user requests). There are about 150 packages total now. Pretty much has everything gnome is supposed to have minus devel/mono/sharp stuff...

Oh... Never been into compositing either. Mainly because I'm opposed to replacing Slackware packages that typically have nothing to do with Gnome. (compiz, X components, openldap, shadow, ect...)

GSB does give instructions for building from source:

http://dev.gnomeslackbuild.org/wiki/gsb-source/Build

I've run DLG, it is a mature version of Gnome for Slackware.

jong357, I was thinking specifically of you when I said that(and myself). When you started producing gnome builds I *know* that you got bogged down on that and couldn't do much else and as soon as you went back to doing something else the gnome work has to stop. Don't misunderstand -I'm not criticizing- I gave up on maintaining even a partial build (called gnome-compat) of 30-60 packages. I mean, I'm an 'aint-broke-don't-fix-it' kinda guy, so I'm sure not gonna spend all my time keeping up-to-date with changes that *never have and never will* reach a state of even temporary stability. I get sick right away of updating and re-learning the same things. That's why I still am running my GTK-1.2 desktop -can't get much more stable than that.

Right. 2.22 has seen alot of changes and unless you subscribe to various lists, your left with a massive catch up game when it's released... I've spent atleast 60-80 hours on 2.22 to date. Just finished sorting 2.22.0 and .1 is already out... Get's old quick.

I knew GSB offered their build system but they sure don't make it easy to find. Thanks for the link ice_nine.

Indeed - I don't do that on *any* of my scripts, whether in my personal repo or at SlackBuilds.org. Eric Hameleers does that for his personal scripts, but not for the ones he maintains at SlackBuilds.org.

Well, we're slowly updating many of them as the need arises.

ACK.

ACK. For anyone who questions why Pat dropped Gnome from stock Slackware, see above.