can i install a non-.deb program?

[Nigel Henry]

On Wednesday 31 December 2008 21:48, Mike McGinn wrote:
> On Wednesday 31 December 2008 15:44:18 Nigel Henry wrote:
> > On Wednesday 31 December 2008 19:55, Derek Broughton wrote:
> > > Koh Choon Lin wrote:
> > > >>> Are you referring to this?
> > > >>> http://www.cabaret-solutions.com/en/downloads/linux
> > > >>
> > > >> yes, that's the one.  i'll take a peek in the archive and see if
> > > >> there is any documentation.
> > > >
> > > > They are in .tgz format so I suppose they are likely to be binary or
> > > > packaged for Slackware.
> > >
> > > Not particularly likely.  That's what's known as a "tarball", and is
> > > the way _source_ software is usually distributed.  You unzip, enter the
> > > top level directory, and do "./configure; make; sudo make install"
> >
> > Well I'm currently downloading it on dialup. Not on Ubuntu, but Kubuntu
> > Intrepid, as I can use Kget which has resume support, and the package is
> > a bit large at 33.3MB. The last thing I want is to get 99% downloaded,
> > then lose my connection. I'm not too clued up on what Gnome uses as
> > download manager, and if it has resume support.
> >
> > Once it's downloaded, I'm preparing myself for dependency hell, when
> > trying to build it. No deps listed on the webpage, but there may be
> > something in the README, or INSTALL files in the tarball. Of course
> > "make" may just run to completion with no errors, but I somehow doubt it
> > from past experience in trying to build some audio apps that need the
> > latest, and greatest libs in order to build. At the moment I'm giving
> > "make" a 50/50 chance of running to completion, but fully expect it to
> > throw in the towel with some obscure error.
> >
> > I'll be back in a couple of hours, when the download has completed, and
> > I've tried building it.
> >
> > 47% now downloaded, as it takes me so long to compose replies, so, I'll
> > be back in an hour or so with the results.
> >
> > What a way to spend the last day of the year, sat in front of 2 monitors.
> > All a bit sad, but I have a few beers at hand.
> >
> > Nigel.
>
> I downloaded and tried it (curious guy I am). It is a Java program and it
> seemed to run fine for me when I invoked it from the shell. There was no
> building involved.

> --
> Mike McGinn

Well that get's rid of the depencency hell then. Hopefully I'll find it works 
ok too.

It would be nice to find a good editor for PDF's. I've tried pdfedit, but it's 
so slooow to update each entry you make. I think I used a KDE app in the end, 
which certainly worked better than pdfedit. It will be interesting to give 
this java app a go, and see how well it works.

Thanks for the feedback. 84% downloaded now. You have to be patient when on 
dialup.

Nigel.