Updates and assumptions

cymrullewes asked today if we had source for Xchat-1.7.0, leading me to discover that I had Xchat-2.0.1 installed and the current version is Xchat-2.8.2.  Thus began the Upgrade Fandango, and the usual delving into the rolling trainwreck that is Gnome.

Xchat-2.8.2 requires GTK+-2.10.0 or newer.  GTK+ requires Glib.  Download GTK+-2.10.12 and Glib-2.12.2.  Build glib.

GTK+ requires atk, pango, and now cairo.  Download atk-1.9.1, pango-1.16.4, and cairo-1.2.6.

Cairo requires libpng, and needs to be able to detect it via pkg-config.  Download and install libpng-1.2.16.

pkg-config is failing to find libpng.pc.  Upgrade pkg-config to 1.15.0.

Finally I can build cairo.  Build pango, atk, GTK+.

GTK+ includes gtkprint, and now ASSUMES that you're using CUPS.  It assumes it so fervently that it never even tests the assumption, it just blindly tries to build the GtkPrint CUPS backend, and blows chunks if it fails.  (Which it will, if CUPS isn't installed.  Which it isn't.)

Examine the configure options.  There appears to be NO WAY to tell it not to build the CUPS backend for GtkPrint.  Whose idiotic idea was this?!?  Eventually, I had to hand-edit three different Makefiles to get GTK+ to stop trying to build the CUPS GtkPrint backend and have it build the lpr backend instead.

Finally I can successfully configure Xchat-2.8.2.

Some of this is reasonable.  Some of it definitely isn't.  Sure, OK, the Gnome people like CUPS.  They really like CUPS.  So they don't want to build the lpr backend by default?  OK, have configure options for printbackend-lpr and printbackend-cups, defaulting to off and on respectively ... but give the user the option to turn lpr on and CUPS off.  But actually commenting out all the lpr options in the Makefile.in files and providing no way to turn the lpr backend back on except to go hand-editing source code?  Come ON, people, get real.

Gnome:  It's the new Windows.