libicu not found in ubuntu 12.04

So in short, now we tell our clients as follows:

“Hey, I have this super-duper compiled web app, which you need to copy to your server. It will most likely not run out of the box, because you need to install 32bit libraries, and I am awfully sorry that I can’t help you with this, because there is zillion of variants of distros and versions … Oh yes, and then you will need to install libicu (or whatever it is called on your Linux distro and version. See above! But hey, it is super-duper! And somewhen in the future we will have 64bit support - just now, it does not work. So god blues you and help yourself”

Brilliant decision. Respect.

This is why I’ve had to hire a Java pro. Some of our major clients would no longer play the Linux “just install the 32bit compatibility libraries” game with us. We had to deliver 64bit or lose them. My hope springs eternal, however, and I’m hoping that the 64bit Xojo allows me to only have to rewrite those 3 tools and not all of them.

Then again, you can create a package (rpm, deb) for each of your target distros with references for the required packages for that distro. Then the client only needs to install the appropriate package and the package manager automatically downloads and installs all the required libs.

Distributing just a tarball is great when everything is statically linked but when you have additional requirements you need an installer.

Linux is a frustrating platform at the best of times, but recommending that Xojo developers learn the realm of RPM (or DPKG) is one more reason for a Xojo Linux developer to research other solutions.

I’ve been involved with Linux since Mark and Donnie developed the RPM format. I’ve created .spec files and generated lots of RPM packages. Honestly, I hope to never do either again. A tarball with an install script is much more “Unix-like” and can be handled by far more developers. The fact that we use tools that require unavailable (by default) resources is more the fault of the development tool than the developer, especially if the developer has no idea of what those might be on a given system.

Maybe a RPM or DEB generator as part of the Build steps would be a great addition since no one knows what a Xojo project has as dependencies than the Xojo team. Maybe that’s the answer to all of this - if Xojo provided a tool that would generate the RPM or DPKG as part of the build steps, these discussions would become moot.

I’ve created a feature request - <https://xojo.com/issue/39132>