Use flags - kde,gnome,gtk,qt

[ggaaron]

What do this flags really do? What is the difference between openoffice with kde and with gnome and maybe with both. If I use fluxbox with both gnome and kde programs then what use flags I should set?

I'm just confused, use flags have only short explanations of what they do and "adds kde support" doesn't tell much.

Thanks in advance for your help
Aaron

[John R. Graham]

Aaron,

There have been posts like this before expressing frustration with the documentation of the USE flags, the lack of specifics, and so on. And while it's true that most developers like to code much more than they like to document, what hasn't been said that I know of is that the (Gentoo) developer that supports the ebuild for an external package may not even know. Not for sure, at least.

Here's the scenario. A Gentoo developer hears good things about package foo, checks it out, and decides to make an ebuild. He sees that the configure script for foo supports a --with-kde configuration option and looks in the (package) developer's release notes. In there he sees "--with-kde" documented as "Adds KDE support" and, knowing that a lot of Gentoo users use KDE (and knowing about the kde USE flag), makes the kde USE flag enable the "--with-kde" option to the configure script. Similarly, the (Gentoo) developer sees that there is also a --with-minix-filesystem-support option to the configure script. The (Gentoo) developer make a judgement call that this is not really a very desirable feature when compiling foo for Linux as opposed to Minix and thus a "minix" USE flag is never born.

In neither case did our hero (the Gentoo developer, of course) know precisely what these configuration options do (although he might have a very educated guess): he just made an informed decision on what preexisting configurability of package foo to expose via USE flags.

Now, regarding one of your specific questions, I can make an educated guess.

Any X package will run under any windows manager. However, each windows manager supports a different look & feel, part of which is called "window dressing". A pure X application won't use any KDE APIs and thus will not pick up on the window styles, fonts, color schemes, etc., of KDE. "KDE support" typically means having the capability to conform to the user's selected KDE look & feel.

Hope this helps, at least in a small way.

- John

[ggaaron]

Ok, so what happens if I use both gnome and kde? Some packages (like openoffice) use both flags, then I'll be able to control look of that program form kcontrol and some gnome control application (I've never found out what it is gconf-editor?) probably leading to conflicts? Should anyone use both flags?

And what about gtk and qt flags? I don't think that programs using gtk without gtk flag will start using pure X library or something Usually gtk gives optional graphic interface (lshw, mplayer), but what does it do to gcc? I've never checked what it does but gcc doesn't look like an X program=) So it is common that gtk flags adds graphic interface? (openoffice again - there is a gtk flag doing what?) qt flag is not widely used and programs that use it are more self-explanary.

Again, if I use fluxbox, then which flags should I use? qt probably (used by poppler-binding and so on) as I use qt applications, but what about gtk and kde/gnome?

I know that if you make an ebuld it is sometimes hard to guess what does --something do, you add something use flag and everything is ok=)

Thanks for help
Aaron

[Carlo]

[John R. Graham]

[kernelOfTruth]