Need help choosing a Motif vendor
Jeff Hughes
of a Motif distribution? All I want are the basics:
ELF shared and static libraries for 2.0
includes
UIL compiler
man pages
regular demos stuff plus mwm
All the distributions so far pretty much meet these demands, yet they vary by as
much as $100 or more in price. The more expensive ones like metrolink seem to
offer little more than printed user's guide(which I can live with only the
online version) and a promise of better quality(less bugs). Are there many
major known problems with for instance SWiM, MoTeeth, or MooTiff. Also, I
thought I read something about problems with Motif and gcc-2.7.0. Do any such
compilation problems exist?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Jeff Hughes
jhu...@tooltime.columbiasc.attgis.com
Gary Foster
: Can anyone provide me with any reasons not to choose the least expensive version
: of a Motif distribution? All I want are the basics:
: ELF shared and static libraries for 2.0
: includes
: UIL compiler
: man pages
: regular demos stuff plus mwm
: All the distributions so far pretty much meet these demands, yet they vary by as
: much as $100 or more in price. The more expensive ones like metrolink seem to
: offer little more than printed user's guide(which I can live with only the
: online version) and a promise of better quality(less bugs). Are there many
: major known problems with for instance SWiM, MoTeeth, or MooTiff. Also, I
: thought I read something about problems with Motif and gcc-2.7.0. Do any such
: compilation problems exist?
I would stay away from MoTeeth until they get their problems worked out. I
bought it and have regretted it ever since. Randy Just of Just Computers
contacted me last time I complained on usenet and told me he'd arrange for me
to FTP the updated ELF release (the one that is distributed is broken BIG
time). Then, they decided that they'd just ship me a new CDROM (I was
perfectly content to just FTP the files but no....), and that was quite a
while ago... haven't heard anything from them since.
It seemed to work quite well if you wanted the a.out stuff, but if you want
ELF you're outta luck. I was hoping to be able to report back that they had a
functional and good product, but unfortunately I can't in good faith do that.
I'd recommend going with either the SWiM or the MetroLink, I've heard pretty
good things about those distributions.
If you still are interested in the MoTeeth, I've got a copy I'd gladly sell...
the CD might at least make a useful coaster.
-- Gary F.
--
PGP public key available: finger gfo...@netcom.com
Alternate email address: gfo...@nummi.com
Peter Mattis
Jeff Hughes <jhu...@tooltime.columbiasc.attgis.com> wrote:
>All the distributions so far pretty much meet these demands, yet they vary by as
>much as $100 or more in price. The more expensive ones like metrolink seem to
>offer little more than printed user's guide(which I can live with only the
>online version) and a promise of better quality(less bugs). Are there many
>major known problems with for instance SWiM, MoTeeth, or MooTiff. Also, I
>thought I read something about problems with Motif and gcc-2.7.0. Do any such
>compilation problems exist?
I can't speak for the ELF version of MooTiff, but from my experience with
the a.out version I would recommend against it. Basically me experience is
this...
Sometime before Thanksgiving I noticed that when you statically link a
binary, the file selection dialog causes a seg fault. I thought this was
my fault, but after narrowing down the problem I discovered I could write
a 20 line program (which is taken almost verbatim from the O'Reiley book)
that reproduces the bug. So I sent mail to the MooTiff technical support
people with the short program that reproduced the bug. All I got back was
an acknowledgement that they were looking into my problem. This was the
week before Thanksgiving. As of today, they still haven't acknowledged the
bug or replied with a fix to my program (indicating that it was really
my fault all along). I have started to pester them, but now I don't even
get my mail returned. Oh yeah, I've also check into other Motif's...they
don't have this problem. (ie Static binaries work fine).
If you are listening MooTiff people, this is not the way to keep
customers. I've already decided that I'm purchasing another version of
Motif for Christmas. I don't expect much technical support, but when I
can point to the function that causes the crash I expect at least some
kind of response or acknowledgement.
Peter Mattis
PS And for all the people out there that want a static binary of the GIMP,
this is the reason there isn't one out yet.
Andreas Nyberg
I got my Moo-Tiff CDs about a week ago. It took me several days of work to get it all
working. First, not knowing any better, I tried to install the aout version on my ELF
system, since the ELF releases had no install scripts. However, the install script
did not care to check for enough free disk space, and copied the shared libraries all
into /lib, filling up my root filesystem. Then, I concluded more than a day later
after making a partial reinstall of Slackware, that the script had run ldconfig,
resulting in a zero-length /etc/ld.so.cache, leaving the system unbootable. I did not
expect the script to put all the libraries in /lib !
Then I had several bad problems installing the ELF distribution and asked some
questions by email to both Infomagic and Lasermoon, but have still not heard
anything. Perhaps that extra $100 for the more expensive ones is for support, because
I sure didn't get any...
Now, a week later, the ELF distribution of Moo-Tiff is working fine, as far as I can
see. But then again, I have had to try just about everything first, all on my own.
/Andreas
Orc
Gary Foster <gfo...@netcom.com> wrote:
>I would stay away from MoTeeth until they get their problems worked out. [...]
>I'd recommend going with either the SWiM or the MetroLink, I've heard pretty
>good things about those distributions.
Be aware, though, that the SWiM distribution comes from exactly
the same vendor as does MoTeeth. I have just come off an exciting
month of trying to get Motif to work with my aged shared libraries,
after buying SWiM and then spending most of that month sending in
bug reports, only to have them silently vanish, and then going out
and buying MoTeeth because it was available and (allegedly) from
someone other than lasermoon. The truely annoying thing about this
$290 dollar adventure is that when the SWiM libraries broke, I sent
them a bugreport listing everything I found wrong, along with a
listing of my system configuration, including the little detail
that I was running libc 4.5.26, only to get back a "oh, we'll send
you a new disk", which, alas, never arrived. Yesterday, I gave up
on lasermoon and ordered MoTeeth, which arrived today, and, along
with the distressing realization that it too is from lasermoon, I
noticed that it had scattered all over the CD readme files saying
"UPGRADE TO LIBC 4.6.27!!!".
I did that. Motif now works.
Of course yellow pages don't work anymore, so I've got working
applications but no way to log into workstations to _USE_ them
anymore, but at least this means this particular commercial product
has been ported and will be available to people who have already
solved the nonworking yellow pages problem.
____
david parsons \bi/ spot the peeve.
\/