Pandora [SOLVED] GLBasic developer needs some Pandora-specific help

[LineOf7s]

Over on the GLBasic forums, the developer of GLBasic is having problems helping someone compiling GLBasic programs on the Pandora, saying "I have no idea. Really, Linux and packages is not my strength. I asked in a pandora IRC, but I got no reply."


In an attempt to be a good net-citizen, and being interested in coding on GLBasic on the Pandora ("one day") I thought I'd post here on behalf of those involved.


Essentially the problem is laid out in this thread and seems to involve difficulties in getting all the required libraries and whatnot required to compile on the Pandora, on the Pandora. Mr GLBasic Man is not au fait with "Linux and packages", but I know a lot of people around here are. Also, similar discussions happened back in September 2010 on these very forums, but that was a few Hotfixes ago and perhaps something's broken/changed since then?


Can anyone help? It would be a shame if the suggestion of "Maybe drop the Pandora support for GLBasic?" were to happen for the sake of a couple of uninstalled libraries (if that's what it is).

 

[WizardStan]

I'll look into it.

 

[LineOf7s]

Your continued unbridled awesomeness rocks the deepest confines of my unstable little world.


I hope it's something simple (relatively speaking).

 

[ibisum]

I'm on it too, registered in the GLBasic forums just to help out .. we'll sort it out, either way ..

 

[LineOf7s]

I love it when a plan comes together. *wipes away a silent tear*


Thanks both. I'll be following both threads with pants-wetting enthusiasm. I see the initial contacts have been met thus far with joyous all-capitals and exclamation marks. YAY!

 

[LineOf7s]

For the sake of posterity, it appears the input of the Pandoran cognoscenti has resulted in a WIN! Yay!


Details in the GLBasic forum thread here. Well done to all involved. GLBasic on Pandora is now as suhweeeeeet as it should be.

 

[WizardStan]

Can you explain exactly how this is supposed to work? I downloaded the version 9 from the website to see what it is all about, but I can't get the editor to run just yet; it may not be virtual machine friendly so I'll have to try it on an actual Windows box when I get a chance, sometime tomorrow.


Was the whole line of questioning about compiling the editor on the Pandora, or simply compiling the interpreter (I assume it's run through an interpreter or at least some kind of virtual machine?) for the Pandora?

 

[LineOf7s]

Aaah, yes... well... you may or may not have noticed the language used in the request is rather vague an indistinct. This is mainly to do with me not knowing exactly what I'm talking about - not having either a Pandora nor a full copy of GLBasic.


I merely pointed the fire out to the firemen.


That being said, the GLBasic IDE works just fine in Windows (XP here), so perhaps it is as you say a virtualisation issue. I've had some fun puttering around in the IDE with the tutorials and whatnot, but I've not yet explored the wonders of multi-platform compilation. My knowledge on that subject comes from the online manual (specifically this page), and is summed up below:

GLBasic supports different target platforms. Thus, you can compile the same application for e.g. Win32 (Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista,...) and WinCE (PocketPC2002, 2003, Windows Mobile, ...).
To choose which operating system you would like to compile for, select the menu item "Project/Options" and choose the target OS in the dropdown box.


Once you have selected the correct OS, choose the relevant settings you wish to apply for that OS' build (resolution etc). The "Compile for this platform" option is no longer relevant in this version of GLBasic. Finally press the "Apply" button to activate the settings.


On the next compilation (Compiler menu/Build-multiplatform), an executable file will be created for each specified target platform. Each platform's executable will have a different name - for example, an executable for WinCE would be called ApplicationName_PPC.exe.

Now, I'm not entirely sure exactly what the problem was - I'm guessing GLBasic was producing a file that then needed to be compiled to run on the Pandora (either compiled on the Pandora itself or on the Windows machine GLBasic runs on), and they were having difficulty doing that compilation. I guess now Mr GLBasic (aka Kitty Hello) has managed to sort out how to compile for Pandora on his Windows machine and, somehow, that makes it better for everyone else.


As I said, the details are lost on my at the moment, but if he's happy it's working I certainly am.


edit: Just found this thread from Mr GLBasic himself (aka KungPhoo) over on the GP32X forums. Looks like I was somewhat wrong, and the compilation does everything in one step. Yay!