Xfce4 build problems, etc.

[Joakim Andreasson]

Hi XFce4 developers!

Ok, so I checked out the Xfce4 sources for the first time in a while. I
have to say it is coming around very nicely, which is why I am now so
very eager to report a few problems I had ;).

I run FreeBSD 4.7.

First, there are some problems with getting it to build at all. The
configure scripts of about all the modules fails to even find a valid C
compiler (/usr/bin/gcc on my system). To make it work, I have to
manually set varables such as $CC, $PKG_CONFIG, $SED, and
$GDK_PIXBUF_CSOURCE. I have upgraded autoconf, automake, and libtool to
the latest versions. (Which, BTW, IMHO I really shouldn't have to.
Aren't these tools around to ensure platform independence?)

More serious is the problem that occurs during the subsequent builds.
Many of the modules fail with error messages like "libtool: 00:30 is not
a nonnegative integer" or somesuch, and I have to manually alter the
makefiles and remove all -version-info switches to libtool to get it to
build. After that, I had to comment out all references to "gettext" in
the xfce4-panel sources, because they make the build fail as well.
(Messages are like "gettext undefined, first use in this function").

Having installed all the programs, I have a minor gripe with xfwm4,
which otherwise works really good. I prefer not to use a close button,
since double-clicking on the menu button has the same functionality and
is just obout as fast. The problem is, some windows, which under other
WMs have menu buttons, lacks it under XFwm4, which make them tedious to
close. This applies to detached xfce4-panel menus, as well as Nedit
open- and save dialogs, which according to MWM hints really should have
menu buttons. If this is intentional, it seems a bit strange, since some
themes (like mofit) doesn't allow you to have close buttons at all.

Otherwise, I am eagerly awaiting minimized window-icons as well as
keyboard bindings (it would be very helpful to have the panel be raised
on a certain key combination, frex.)


I hope I am being helpful,
Joakim


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