Re: [Visualpython-users] Linux clarification

[Andy D. <dou...@la...>]

On Sun, 3 Mar 2002, Joe Heafner wrote:

> I need some clarification on the Linux version of VPython. Am I to
> assume from the online information at vpython.org that the suppled
> Python 2.2 and VPython packages contain *everything* needed to install
> under Linux? All the supplementary libraries? I'm running RH7 (soon to
> be upgraded I hope to 7.2).

Short answer:  Maybe.  Other packages you may need are commonly, but not
universally, installed on many Linux systems.  (I don't know RH7 well
enough to say anything definitive about it.)  I can tell you that on my
Debian system, I also needed to add glib, gtk+, and some sort of OpenGL
library.  You may need to check that you have the development versions of
the libraries.[1] 

VPython includes gtkglarea, but if you can't use the supplied i386 rpm[2]
you may also need to install gtkglarea from source. If so, I'd recommend
using the slightly-newer gtkglarea-1.2.3 -- it worked marginally better
for me.

Where you get OpenGL may depend, in part, on which X server you're using.  
I'm currently trying Mesa as an OpenGL replacement, but with mixed
success. The Visual window only seems to be updated occasionally; with the
same program under Windows, the updating is nearly continuous.

Hope this helps,

    Andy Dougherty		dou...@la...
    Dept. of Physics
    Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042

[1] For some libraries, some Linux distributions sometimes ship both
runtime and development versions.  You need the development version if you
want to compile.

[2] e.g. if you don't have an rpm command, or if if you're running on a
different architecture, such as an Alpha or SPARC.