Jim Cheetham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Nick Rout wrote:No no no, and a hundred times no.If so the debian packages will probably work: http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=gambas&searchon=names&subword=1&version=all&release=all
can you explain for us plebs what "main" and "universe" are, and how they differ from the debian package streams?
"main" is the place to find the programs that are fully supported and loved by the Ubuntu developers. Everything that is installed from the Ubuntu CD comes from main, and everything in "main" is basically a showcase for Ubuntu.
"universe" contains all the other software taken from Debian that seems to compile properly and work. However, it won't all be fully useable.
As an example, ethereal comes from "universe", and by default it adds menu items that invoke it as root, using "kdesu". Unfortunately, this won't work on Ubuntu, because there is no password available for root. The fix is to get ethereal to invoke "kdesudo" - this works.
There are other repositories - "restricted" which contains non-free stuff, and "multiverse", which contains things from universe that seem to compile OK, but don't run properly, or have execution dependancies that don't exist.
Is it that they contain similar packages, but the ubuntu ones are separately compiled by and for ubuntu?
Not just compiled, but they have some file locations and other expectations altered. As with the ethereal example above, these may not be strictly technical expectations.
I know debian maintains a source package for each package, which has metadata for instructing the system how to compile it and ''debianise" it. Would it be in order to utilise a debian source package on ubuntu in this way?
Yes-ish, but Debianisation is not Ubuntuisation - although Ubuntu intends to repeatedly get new software from Debian's tree, they don't expect to use it without hacking. It may be fairer to go to the original tarball for random software, although this might give you problems with inadequately explained dependancies.
Now, this isn't particularly helpful for the original poster of this subthread. There are a couple of BASIC packages available for Ubuntu, but they're not GUI IDE sorts of things.
universe/bwbasic: Description: Bywater BASIC Interpreter The Bywater BASIC Interpreter (bwBASIC) implements a large superset of the ANSI Standard for Minimal BASIC (X3.60-1978) and a significant subset of the ANSI Standard for Full BASIC (X3.113-1987) in C. It also offers shell programming facilities as an extension of BASIC. bwBASIC seeks to be as portable as possible.
universe/yabasic: Description: Yet Another BASIC interpreter Implements the most common (and simple) elements of the language plus some graphics facilities. Anyone who has ever written BASIC programs on a C-64 should feel at home.
Now, Ubuntu *is* a standard Linux, and has all the development tools available. I'm just saying that you shouldn't use them, not that you can't."freedom" is a clearly a variable commodity :-)
Indeed it is. Just because you have the freedom to do something doesn't mean that you *should* do it!
-jim
