Re: starting Fescobaldi

[Simon Bailey]

tom,

Tom Cloyd wrote:
> Sorry if this is not precisely the right place to ask this question - 
> it's at least rather close, and I cannot find anywhere else to go.
>
> Just now trying out the Frescobaldi editor 
> (http://frescobaldi.org/index.html). Installed it from tar ball. And 
> then... Well, after over a year working with a Linux OS (Kubuntu) I 
> still haven't figured out what the standard is for starting a program in 
> Linux. There appear to be a number of them.
>
> In this case, I cannot figure out how to START Frescobaldi. Absolutely 
> clueless. No /bin subdir. It's a Python program, or maybe just uses 
> Python. or maybe...well who knows?
>
> At the website, user documentation starts with the assumption that 
> you've started the program. Not helpful.
>
> So...can anyone clue me in?

if you downloaded a tarball of frescobaldi, i assume that you downloaded 
the source package from the google code page. there's a general 
convention that tarballs contain a README and/or INSTALL text file with 
detailed instructions on how to install the package. in this case, there 
are both, and the INSTALL file should walk you through the (generally 
painless) installation process.

however, seeing as you're using kubuntu, you might want to avoid the 
source compilation and pick up a precompiled .deb package from:
https://launchpad.net/~frescobaldi/+archive/ppa (this link is on the 
frescobaldi web-site).

either add the apt sources.list entries to your apt package manager, or 
download the .deb file corresponding to your system and install with 
'sudo dpkg -i $package-name' (without quotes and replace $package-name 
by the .deb file name).

the standard for starting a program once it's installed is to call the 
program from the command-line. precompiled packages generally install to 
/usr/bin, self-compiled packages to /usr/local/bin or on some 
distributions to /opt/bin or /opt/local/bin.

long answer, but i hope this helps to get you pointed in the right 
direction. if not, there should be enough buzzwords to help you find the 
right parts of the ubuntu docs. :)

regards,
sb

--
Simon Bailey
Oompa Loompa of Science
+43 699 190 631 25