[q-lang-devel] Compile issues on the add-on packages on Debian

[Kari P. <ka...@sa...>]

On Mon, Feb 02, 2004 at 12:58:04PM +0100, Albert Graef wrote:
> P.S.: Did you port the other Q-related packages to Debian yet? If so, 

Ok, I had a look at the other packages.

q-audio should check for the presence of sndfile in its configure
script.  src/sndfile.c failed to #include "sndfile.h" and failed with
a bunch of errors about undefined variables.  You mention this
dependency in the README file, but it wouldn't hurt to make it
explicit in the configure too.

I didn't get q-audio to actually play any sound.  I ran audio_examp.q
with the following result:
==> play ("canary-long.wav")
PaHost_OpenStream: could not open /dev/dsp for O_WRONLY
PaHost_OpenStream: ERROR - result = -10000
play ("canary-long.wav")

My audio config seems to be ok, sox played that file fine.

audio_player failed with:
libgg: Unknown target option 'keepcursor'
display-x: error in arguments.

Removing that keepcursor option from the ggi init made audio_player
work.  It displayed the sample data graphically, but didn't play any
sound either.

IANAL, but there might be some trouble with q-midi linking to
MidiShare, whose licence is not compatible with GPL. The licence of
MidiShare has: "You cannot modify all or part of the MidiShare
software."

AFAIK this means that q-midi can't be distributed in binary format.
This is what kept KDE away from Debian for years.  This particular
problem can be fixed on your side with adding to the GPL something
like "as a special exemption, you may link q-midi with MidiShare."
Consult FSF for details on this.

Besides, the compilation of q-midi fails with the same kind of errors
as q-audio.  The configure script should check for MidiShare.

Graph compiled flawlessly and could be ran once I read the README and
found out about the dependency on BFilter.

> maybe you could contribute Debian packages for the latest release? That 
> would be truly great. :)

It would be time-consuming for me too.  And I think .deb packages do
little good if they're not included in Debian proper.  I would need to
find a sponsor, as I am not a Debian developer...  Besides, I'm not
familiar with creating .debs either, at least no yet.

I might do this later, when I have time and if I'm still interested in
Q.  Checking if things run is a lot less involving.