Brian Lunergan wrote: > Joost 't Hart wrote: > > <content trimmed for brevity> > > >> Hi Brian, >> >> This is somewhat strange. "greyed out". I have no clue what or why. >> >> What Ubuntu distro do you use? What tcl/tk version do you have installed? >> > > Answers to that are 8.04.1 LTS Desktop and I have no idea how to find out > what version. >
Hm, right. Good old Hardy :-) Is the Long Term Support still on? Default Hardy comes with tcl/tk 8.4 (see http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/tcl), but on the righthand side this page has a link to the 8.5 stuff as well. So you should be able to add those; they are required for more recent scid versions (>= 3.7). Note that the 8.x thingy is not so much a version of the package, but a different package with a different name. You should be able to see tcl8.x package availability in synaptic and you can have them both on your system, side by side. > >> 3.6.1 is a very old scid release, from December 2006. Only after that >> time scid development got the new boost and it seems Franz jumped on the >> train since 3.6.12 in April 2007. >> >> Franz' latest spell-check files include the new 5/6 times yearly rating >> updates by Fide. For this to be parsed correctly, scid was adjusted only >> recently, in the 4.2 release of last Jan. But at this point this seems >> only detail to you. >> >> As it should be, you can drop the ssp file (name it as you wish) in any >> directory as you wish. The user running scid only needs read access on >> the complete file path. The load spell-check file dialogue allows you to >> browse your file system to select precisely that path. Scid has no >> implicit preferences. >> Hence, your real problem should be the fact that the option is greyed >> out. Nothing else to worry about. >> >> I would like to recommend you to upgrade your Scid release (anyway). >> Preparation: >> * Make sure you have tcl/tk 8.5 package >> > > As I said above, I've no idea what version or how to find out. > > >> * It is highly recommended to have the libtk-img package, for better >> graphics of board and icons (png instead of gif). >> * Make sure you have gcc package >> > > I seem to have these two installed. > > >> * It is advisable to have the zlib1g package (but the sources come with >> a zlib implementation if not) >> > > A search for that package in synaptic turned up nothing so I'd have to go > with the one supplied in the package. > Yes, or you have to add the proper URL to your synaptic repositories list (see e.g. http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/libs/ at the very end of the list, where it shows the package is available indeed). > >> You should be able to arrange this through synaptic. >> >> The real work: >> * Download the scid source tree >> (http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html) and extract it somewhere in >> your ~brian filesystem >> * In a shell tool, cd to the new scid directory >> * Type "./configure" (without the quotes); this should create a makefile >> * Type "make"; this should build scid for your system. >> * Type "./scid &" and you are set. >> >> Dunno if this embarrasses you; just give it a try. You can always hit >> the installed scid version by entering "scid" (without the "./" to >> denote your own sciddy) if you decide to continue follow the old track. >> Note that if you are successful in building your own scid: Do not >> accidentally switch between the old and the new one, as some files used >> to remember your preferences (in ~brian/.scid/) are not compatible, so >> you will need to redo your preferences each time you switch programs, >> which is pretty frustrating. >> > > Not embarrassed at all. Just out of my usual range. I've been working with > computers in one form or another since my high school days some thirty plus > years ago, but I'm a user rather than programmer. Strange, I know, having > chosen to work with Linux but the closest I've felt inclined to venture to > implementing something not listed in synaptic is installing a couple of > items from a deb pack. I'm certainly game to try, but I would need a > patient list of all steps for the launch right from creating the directory > to drop things into. :-) The list cannot be much more patient than the above one, as there really is no hairy stuff to take into account. I suggest you create a fresh <scid, or whatever> directory in your home directory (I nicked that one ~brian) and extract the source tree right there. This tree builds up from another scid directory so after extraction you cd to ~brian/<scid, or whatever>/scid and enter the ./configure and make from there. The executable files will appear in the same directory. The configure script (a.o.) peeks your system for the zlib availability. If negative, the supplied zlib sources from the tree will be marked for compilation and linkage into the executable during the make stage. The new executable file (~brian/<scid, or whatever>/scid/scid) will not (yet) be in your path. You can change this later on if you want, but it is good to realize that if you just enter the scid command from your home folder (or select the scid program from some application launch menu) you will launch your old 3.6.1 version of scid (which is still there, installed in /usr/bin/scid). To start with, best is to enter the ./scid command in a shell from the new tree directory - very much the same way as you enter the ./configure command. Finally, the only really fixed data directory is the (hidden) ~brian/.scid directory, which is used by the program mainly for private matters. You probably already have this directory, as it was created by running scid3.6.1 (note the incompatibility I pointed out above). The optional player photo files (.spf) you should copy in there manually. I feel this is a bug. Personally, I have put symbolic links to the photo files in there. The actual files I safely put somewhere else :-) All other data directories (for databases, spellcheck files, opening books etc.) can be chosen at runtime through the file selection dialogs. There are separate scid options available to preconfigure locations for (opening) book files and databases, but I never used those myself. So far so good. Give it a go. As long as you do not uninstall any packages (and you should not need to do so), there is really no chance to harm your system integrity. If you are unlucky and decide to give up, just rm -rf ~brian/<scid, or whatever> and you are back to base. > I suppose the question also bears asking whether my > version of Ubuntu is even suitable to host a copy of the newest edition or > is it too far back. > > It seems to me that all the packages you need are readily available for Hardy, so once you manage to have those installed I expect no particular trouble as far as scid is concerned. Good luck, Joost. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev _______________________________________________ Scid-users mailing list Scid-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
