SlackBuild.org GTK Apps in KDE in 12.1

Woodsman · 06-01-2008, 12:37 AM

I compiled and installed from slackbuilds.org some GTK apps: Abiword, Gnumeric, and Geany.

In Abiword and Geany I was taken to the respective web site rather than opening local help docs. The identical help files for both apps are on my hard drive. Is there a sym link I need or an undocumented profile entry? A missing option in the build scripts?

Gnumeric was built with no local help, only web based. How do I rebuild to install the help files locally?

How do I change the basic interface with these apps? I find the toolbars and toolbar drop-down widgets funky looking. Very blockish looking --- sort of a Motif/Lesstif look more than GTK. Is this a default theme issue with the stock 12.1? I'm a KDE user, however, and unfamiliar with GTK. All I have found so far is a lot of discussion about manually editing gtkrc files, which makes my eyes water! Is there some kind of basic interface tool to work this magic?

Thanks.

shadowsnipes · 06-01-2008, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

I compiled and installed from slackbuilds.org some GTK apps: Abiword, Gnumeric, and Geany.

In Abiword and Geany I was taken to the respective web site rather than opening local help docs. The identical help files for both apps are on my hard drive. Is there a sym link I need or an undocumented profile entry? A missing option in the build scripts?

Gnumeric was built with no local help, only web based. How do I rebuild to install the help files locally?

Gnumeric should have docs under /usr/doc/gnumeric-VERSION and probably some man pages as well. If you are expecting more documentation first find out if it is included in the source. If it isn't included in the source then you shouldn't expect it to be included in a package made by a SlackBuild. To have it added in that case you would just need to make sure you have a copy of those files that you copy into your package while it is being built. This would be a very minor modification the the build script.

I'm guessing that Abiword and Geany point to web docs by design (easier to find the most up to date info that way). If you need to read the local docs then it is probably best you open them manually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

How do I change the basic interface with these apps? I find the toolbars and toolbar drop-down widgets funky looking. Very blockish looking --- sort of a Motif/Lesstif look more than GTK. Is this a default theme issue with the stock 12.1? I'm a KDE user, however, and unfamiliar with GTK. All I have found so far is a lot of discussion about manually editing gtkrc files, which makes my eyes water! Is there some kind of basic interface tool to work this magic?

Thanks.

You might want to try to use the Xfce 'control panel' (xfce-setting-show I think) to configure your gtk themes.

Bruce Hill · 06-01-2008, 01:26 AM

When you untar source you will usually find entries such as:

Code:

mingdao@silas:~/build/rt2570/build$ ls -l rt2570-cvs-2008053011/
total 48
-rw-r--r-- 1 mingdao users  4158 2008-05-05 02:54 CHANGELOG
drwxr-xr-x 2 mingdao users    32 2008-05-31 00:35 CVS/
-rw-r--r-- 1 mingdao users   105 2005-07-23 12:42 FAQ
-rw-r--r-- 1 mingdao users 18027 2007-06-13 09:28 LICENSE
drwxr-xr-x 3 mingdao users  4096 2008-05-31 00:35 Module/
-rw-r--r-- 1 mingdao users  2632 2007-12-06 12:17 README
-rw-r--r-- 1 mingdao users   869 2007-11-08 01:22 THANKS

Then in the SlackBuild script you need to prepare those for installation.

Perhaps if you study some of Alien Bob's SlackBuilds they will help you see how document files can be included in a SlackBuild script. Just one of many reasons I prefer his build scripts ...

IMO every SlackBuild should install a man page and documentation (in the proper places) if they're in the source.

TSquaredF · 06-01-2008, 08:48 AM

I know nothing about the help files problem, but instead of modifying the gtkrc file, use the gtk-qt-engine. It is available at SlackBuilds.org.
Regards,
Bill

jong357 · 06-01-2008, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowsnipes

Gnumeric should have docs under /usr/doc/gnumeric-VERSION and probably some man pages as well. If you are expecting more documentation first find out if it is included in the source. If it isn't included in the source then you shouldn't expect it to be included in a package made by a SlackBuild.

Well, to you and Bruce, I think he is talking about actual useful docs instead of useless clutter that no one reads...

/usr/doc is 95% full of "cover my ass to be GPL compliant" material, not anything that actually helps the end user. Gnumeric does ship with local real docs, but you need yelp/rarian to view them. Unless you have those installed, it ain't gonna work. Those docs would be under /usr/share/gnome/help/gnumeric and accessed by yelp directly...

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowsnipes

I'm guessing that Abiword and Geany point to web docs by design (easier to find the most up to date info that way). If you need to read the local docs then it is probably best you open them manually.

Correct with Abiword, atleast if the SlackBuild built the abiword-docs tarball. It's now a separate tarball as well as the plugins with 2.6.x... The local docs can be found under /usr/share/abiword-2.6/help/$LANGUAGE... Don't know about Geany. Never used it.

However, it still seems Abiword calls upon your web browser to view on-line docs, regardless on whether or not you have the local ones installed. Something I've been meaning to look into.

jong357 · 06-01-2008, 11:43 AM

Code:

[root@jaguar ~/Desktop/abiword-2.6.3] grep -R "http://www.abisource.com/help" .
./src/af/xap/win/xap_Win32DialogBase.cpp:        helpLocalizeAndOpenURL ("AbiWord/help", m_pDlg->getHelpUrl().c_str(), "http://www.abisource.com/help/" );
./src/af/xap/win/xap_Win32Dlg_FontChooser.cpp:        helpLocalizeAndOpenURL ("AbiWord/help", getHelpUrl().c_str(), "http://www.abisource.com/help/" );
./src/wp/ap/win/ap_Win32Dialog_Background.cpp:        helpLocalizeAndOpenURL ("AbiWord/help", getHelpUrl().c_str(), "http://www.abisource.com/help/");
./src/wp/ap/xp/ap_EditMethods.cpp:    return helpLocalizeAndOpenURL("AbiWord/help", "index", "http://www.abisource.com/help/");
./src/wp/ap/xp/ap_EditMethods.cpp:    return helpLocalizeAndOpenURL("AbiWord/help", "introduction", "http://www.abisource.com/help/");
./src/wp/ap/xp/ap_EditMethods.cpp:    return helpLocalizeAndOpenURL("AbiWord/help", "search", "http://www.abisource.com/help/");
./src/wp/ap/xp/ap_EditMethods.cpp:    return helpLocalizeAndOpenURL("AbiWord/help", "credits", "http://www.abisource.com/help/");

That's probably the first thing I would try. sed the search string to

file:///usr/share/abiword-2.6/help/

Then rebuild. That's probably there because they don't know whether your building the abiword-docs tarball or not. Better to make sure docs are displayed regardless. Dunno.

dugan · 06-01-2008, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowsnipes

You might want to try to use the Xfce 'control panel' (xfce-setting-show I think) to configure your gtk themes.

And then run xfce-mcs-manager when you're not in Xfce.

Woodsman · 06-01-2008, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Gnumeric should have docs under /usr/doc/gnumeric-VERSION and probably some man pages as well.

Man page exists but no help files in the usual /usr/doc location.

Quote:

I think he is talking about actual useful docs instead of useless clutter that no one reads... /usr/doc is 95% full of "cover my ass to be GPL compliant" material

Yup, for Gnumeric only a half dozen or so blah-blah documents.

For Abiword and Geany the problem is opening the file locally rather than pushing me to the web.

Quote:

If it isn't included in the source then you shouldn't expect it to be included in a package made by a SlackBuild.

I checked the gnumeric sources last night before I posted my questions, but I forgot to mention that no help files were included. I quickly looked at the gnumeric web site for a help file tarball and found none, but I did not look hard. I'll have to return and look again.

Quote:

When you untar source you will usually find entries such as...Then in the SlackBuild script you need to prepare those for installation.

Okay --- I might be catching on to this ---.

I just looked at the configure file in the Geany tarball sources and there is an option for docdir, but the option is not in the build script. I scratched my head

a little and then discovered that my version of the build script was not the same as the one at SlackBuilds. I must have used an older build script and merely changed the version number. Anyway, I used the current build script and the help files compiled fine. So the Geany help problem is now SOLVED.

Lesson learned: check the build script before building.

With that said ---

For Abiword I'll gander a guess where the problem lies. SlackBuilds.org did not contain any of the plugin or doc packages for Abiword. I found build scripts at slacky.eu for all of those packages. All the builds and installs went okay. However, in the SlackBuilds Abiword script, there is a config option --docdir=/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION. The abiword-docs package from slacky.eu installed the package at /usr. That is likely where the problem lies --- getting the abiword-docs build script from slacky.eu to install to /usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION.

Quote:

You might want to try to use the Xfce 'control panel' (xfce-setting-show I think) to configure your gtk themes.

I use KDE, but I could toggle into Xfce to use those front-end tools, which would provide better feedback than hacking a config file and restarting programs. However, if I recall correctly, those Xfce front-end tools are only for modifying themes, not the widgets. The problem for me is not the themes, but the look-and-feel of the toolbar widgets. They look awful --- very blockish. The versions I compiled do not look anywhere as nice as the pictures posted at the web sites.

Here is a screenshot posted at the Abiword web site.

Here is a screenshot posted at my web site showing how my toolbars look based upon using the SlackBuilds.org build script.

Notice the difference in the font and style drop-down list boxes.

T3slider · 06-01-2008, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

The problem for me is not the themes, but the look-and-feel of the toolbar widgets. They look awful --- very blockish. The versions I compiled do not look anywhere as nice as the pictures posted at the web sites.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TSquaredF

I know nothing about the help files problem, but instead of modifying the gtkrc file, use the gtk-qt-engine. It is available at SlackBuilds.org.

That's good advice. I have been using the gtk-qt-engine app for quite a while now with good results. It places a submenu in Control Center (in the "Appearance & Themes" section) that allows you to change the GTK theme being used, as well as the fonts being used, for GTK applications. It also includes the possibility to use your current KDE style in GTK apps (which is what I use), so now even my GTK apps don't look out of place in my KDE environment.

jong357 · 06-01-2008, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

I checked the gnumeric sources last night before I posted my questions, but I forgot to mention that no help files were included. I quickly looked at the gnumeric web site for a help file tarball and found none, but I did not look hard. I'll have to return and look again.

Good luck on that one. As I've mentioned, it's a yelp based help.
http://jaguarlinux.com/pub/sandbox/gnumeric.png

That or use something like this:
http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumer...gnumeric.shtml

As for abiword, I'll be upgrading to 2.6.3 tonite so I'll mess around with my previous idea and let you know if it works.

jong357 · 06-02-2008, 07:59 AM

My sed idea works for Abiword but I completely overlooked the obvious in that grep command. The help files need to be installed in:

/usr/share/abiword-2.6/Abiword/help

not

/usr/share/abiword-2.6/help

like I was doing in my own package....

Quote:

Originally Posted by ./src/wp/ap/xp/ap_EditMethods.cpp

Code:

return helpLocalizeAndOpenURL("Abiword/help", "index", "http://www.abisource.com/help/");

It looks to Abiword/help first then falls back to the URL if not found.... So, if Slackbuilds.org doesn't build the help tarball (and install it to the right place

) then online help is all you get.

EDIT:
Eh... That'll teach me to post solutions before testing. Still doesn't work. Looks like I'm back to my sed idea....

Woodsman · 06-06-2008, 05:33 PM

Quote:

I know nothing about the help files problem, but instead of modifying the gtkrc file, use the gtk-qt-engine. It is available at SlackBuilds.org.

I've been using that package for several years, but that is not the core of my complaint. My complaint is the goofy drop-down boxes in the toolbars, not the fonts or themes.

Quote:

Good luck on that one. As I've mentioned, it's a yelp based help.

I'll just use OOo Calc. I also dislike apps that create config files in the root of my home directory. I disliked this practice in the Windows world too. Just lazy programming. Why can't apps create config files in their own folder? Oh well---.

Quote:

The help files need to be installed in: /usr/share/abiword-2.6/Abiword/help

I'm struggling with this. I downloaded the build script from slacky.eu (not slackbuilds.org). Yet regardless of what I try, I can't get the path correct when the package is created. The help files always get created in /usr/share/abiword-2.6/help, not /usr/share/abiword-2.6/Abiword/help. Further this would seem to be a mistake in the ap_EditMethods.cpp you mentioned. The abiword-docs config file lists no option using the "Abiword" subdirectory.

Any ideas anybody?

jong357 · 06-06-2008, 09:55 PM

To be honest, I never checked to see if there was a make install target for the abiword-docs tarball. I 'cp' directly to my $PKG directory. But.... As per my edit on the last post, they still don't get picked up in ./Abiword/help... Screwy. The sed hack does work 100% tho and that's what I've chosen to go with. Have a look see at my build script for further clarification.

http://jaguarlinux.com/pub/slackware...ord.SlackBuild

BTW, $ABI_LANGUAGE and $ABI_HELP come from a 'variables' file back a directory or two. Just so you don't get hung up on trying to read it wondering where those come from. So does $ABI_PLUGINS for that matter. Not intending you to use that script, just showing you how I build/install it and also how to get the localized docs to be read.

Woodsman · 06-07-2008, 02:42 PM

Conceptually I understand what you did. I did something similar to one of my scripts that needed on-the-fly changes to the make files.

However, would changing the online URL to the local /usr/share/abiword-2.6.3/Abiword resolve the issue created by the slacky.eu script? That latter script still installs the files in /usr/share/abiword-2.6/help not /usr/share/abiword-2.6/AbiWord/help.

Regardless, this is all crappy.

jong357 · 06-07-2008, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

However, would changing the online URL to the local /usr/share/abiword-2.6.3/Abiword resolve the issue created by the slacky.eu script? That latter script still installs the files in /usr/share/abiword-2.6/help not /usr/share/abiword-2.6/AbiWord/help.

Oi... As I've said earlier, it doesn't matter whether you install the docs to /usr/share/abiword-2.6.3/Abiword/help or to /usr/share/abiword-2.6.3/help... It still uses the online docs regardless. All you have to do is change the http URL in that C file to whatever directory you choose to install your local docs to. Install them in /opt/abislop/help if you want. Just use that same path in the C file in place of the online URL....