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Windows example of Hello World doesn't work on Linux #8
Description
Windows example of Hello World uses GTK library and that example doesn't work on Linux (Debian, Mint)... :-(
$ cat hello-win.pike
int main()
{
GTK.setup_gtk();
GTK.Alert("Hello world!");
return -1;
}
$ pike hello-win.pike
hello-Win.pike:5:Undefined identifier GTK.
hello-Win.pike:6:Undefined identifier GTK.
hello-Win.pike:5:Attempt to call a non function value `() (function call).
hello-Win.pike:5:Expected: function.
hello-Win.pike:5:Got : zero.
hello-Win.pike:6:Too many arguments to `() (function call) (expected 0 arguments).
hello-Win.pike:6:Got : string(32..119).
Pike: Failed to compile script.
Debian 13 (Trixie), pike has no module that supports gtk
$ apt-cache search ^pike
pike8.0 - Recommended metapackage for Pike 8.0
pike8.0-bzip2 - Bzip2 module for Pike
pike8.0-core - Powerful interpreted programming language
pike8.0-dev - Development files for Pike 8.0
pike8.0-dnssd - DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD) for Pike
pike8.0-doc - Pike 8.0 documentation
pike8.0-full - Metapackage for Pike 8.0
pike8.0-fuse - Filesystem in USErspace support for Pike
pike8.0-gdbm - Gdbm module for Pike
pike8.0-gl - Mesa modules for Pike
pike8.0-image - Image modules for Pike
pike8.0-kerberos - Kerberos and GSSAPI modules for Pike
pike8.0-mysql - MySQL modules for Pike
pike8.0-odbc - ODBC modules for Pike
pike8.0-pg - PostgreSQL modules for Pike
pike8.0-sane - SANE module for Pike
pike8.0-sdl - SDL module for Pike
pike8.0-sqlite - SQLite module for Pike
pike8.0-svg - SVG format support for Pike
pike8.0-web-sass - Sass CSS precompiler modules for Pike
GTK library is not linked in the pike interpreter:
$ ldd /usr/bin/pike8.0
linux-gate.so.1 (0xb7f85000)
libgmp.so.10 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgmp.so.10 (0xb7c24000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0xb7b07000)
libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libcrypt.so.1 (0xb7ac6000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0xb7888000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7f87000)
$ pike -v
Pike v8.0 release 1956 Copyright © 1994-2025 Linköping University
Pike comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; This is free software and you are
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; read the files
COPYING and COPYRIGHT in the Pike distribution for more details.
Activity
eMBee commentedon Sep 27, 2025
that's because gtk support has been dropped in the debian packages: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=885673
if this can be fixed and if gtk2 support on debian is possible at all is unknown.
if you want to help investigating this issue, you can try to build pike from source on debian. if you can get gtk to work without those dependencies, talk to the debian pike maintainer an ask him if he can include that in the debian package.
PSLLSP commentedon Sep 27, 2025
I assume that
gtk2is a history. I still can see libgtk2 in Debian 13 repository as well as libgtk-3 and libgtk-4:I am not a developer, I could be wrong but I assume that gtk-3 or gtk-4 should be the way to continue.
This is an answer from AI:
GTK2 is considered obsolete and no longer maintained. It is outdated from a modern perspective and has been replaced by newer versions like GTK3 and GTK4, which are actively maintained.
eMBee commentedon Sep 27, 2025
yes, but not libgnome and libgtksourceview2 which were both dependencies of the pike-gtk package.
it seems to be possible to build gtk without libgnome. but i don't know if the dependency on libgtksourceview2 can also be removed.
however, the tutorial is the wrong place to solve this. this is an issue with the debian packages, and therefore needs to be reported and fixed there: https://bugs.debian.org/pike8.0
PSLLSP commentedon Sep 28, 2025
Hello World with GTK doesn't work in Win10 (i386)...