Everything New is Old Already: Building gcalctool
When I first started using Fedora Core 1 at work, I noticed that the included calculator was rather humble in functionality. It couldn't handle hex, for instance. I used kcalc for a while, but at some point I downloaded the source for gcalctool, built it, and added an icon to the, um, is it still called a task bar in gnome? This created a mild nuisance when I would log into Linux boxen other than my own: the file with the calculator logo was only on my desk machine.
When I returned to work from Harmony College, my machine had been upgraded to Fedora Core 3. I noticed the gcalctool icon error and realized I'd need to reinstall gcalctool. I'd completely forgotten that I'd build gcalctool from source. I went hunting for an RPM and didn't find one. Then I checked my installation directory and found the source tree. Ah, perhaps I should rebuild for the newer Linux. Uh, no, it won't compile. Hmm. Maybe I need a newer gcalctool? I went searching and found, to my dismay, that I already had the most recent one. D'oh! I did a bit more searching and discovered that I only had the newest version mentioned on Source Forge, 4.2. The newest version from gnome was 5.6! I downloaded that, but it wouldn't build. That one needed the 2.6 gtk+ libraries, but FC3 ships with one several minor revisions earlier. Hmm . . . 5.5? No, same problem. OK, time to go back a bit. 4.4? Ah, that one works. Isn't this supposed to be easier?
When I returned to work from Harmony College, my machine had been upgraded to Fedora Core 3. I noticed the gcalctool icon error and realized I'd need to reinstall gcalctool. I'd completely forgotten that I'd build gcalctool from source. I went hunting for an RPM and didn't find one. Then I checked my installation directory and found the source tree. Ah, perhaps I should rebuild for the newer Linux. Uh, no, it won't compile. Hmm. Maybe I need a newer gcalctool? I went searching and found, to my dismay, that I already had the most recent one. D'oh! I did a bit more searching and discovered that I only had the newest version mentioned on Source Forge, 4.2. The newest version from gnome was 5.6! I downloaded that, but it wouldn't build. That one needed the 2.6 gtk+ libraries, but FC3 ships with one several minor revisions earlier. Hmm . . . 5.5? No, same problem. OK, time to go back a bit. 4.4? Ah, that one works. Isn't this supposed to be easier?