Uwe’s weblog

The installation shuffle continues.

I’ve managed to install libssl-dev, postgres etc and am now in the process of installing psycopg2 (beta). To be able to build psycopg I also need to install the python2.4-dev package. Will this ever end?

All done - what I have now is:-

• Ubuntu (hoary) 5.04 (CD)
• Python2.4 – Ubuntu’s default
• Python-dev – not installed by default
• Postgresql 7.4.7
• libssl-dev
• psycopg2b2 source tarball

Now that I have the pre-requisites in place I can build psycopg – wrong!

Typing python setup.py build results in yet another non-installed dependency - gcc. How can any Linux distro install without gcc?

I installed gcc and then built and installed psycopg only to find that TinyERP only works with psycopg 1.17 or above but not with psycopg 2 – yet. The TinyERP mailing lists and support forum is of little use to me as French is not one of my strong points.

Removing psycopg2 and installing psycopg1.17 solved the problem.

Finally I’m ready to test TinyERP.

I have a number of special requirements that have kept me searching for an accounting system for quite some time. The short list is much too long to record here but high on the list are things like:-

• Easy for non cumputer scientists to use
• Multiple selling prices for products
• Multiple retrieval codes for products - internal, supplier, barcode etc
• Multiple contacts for customers, suppliers
• Multiple addresses
• and much more

To be honest I havent found one yet and TinyERP is no exception. It is well written and may suit quite a few industries so it is well worth a look but alas it wont suit my needs.

Oh well, there appears to be no way around it, I have to start from scratch.

What I have gained from this exercise?

I’ve examined thousands of lines of code which has given me ideas of how to implement some of what I want. It has also introduced me to some very interesting coding techniques.

I’m also now an expert at installing stuff.

As I’m now mid way through week 4 I thought I’d post an update and get some of my thoughts out. It’s getting a bit crowded upstairs.

Setting up the test server:-
I tried Gentoo first and although it appeared to work I found groking the structure too much of a burden for this excercise. Fedora Core 3 installed and locked solid on first reboot – enough said. I didn’t install Debian as I only had a real old copy and being on a dial-up Internet connection downloading iso images is not something I’d attempt nor recommend.

That left Ubuntu Linux which was the only distro to install without a hickup and without brain strain. Now that I had a server I could just set up the applications I want to test and get to work. Right? - Well in an ideal world things would just work.

Developers Nightmare #1 – software dependencies.

Whilst installing packages, I started going through the source code to get a feel for the program. How it hangs together. Is it easy to understand? Is it rigid or flexible and are there any limitations to the methods employed? etc.

The package installation nightmares continue. Attempting to install the Postgres packages results in a dependancy that won’t install. Bloody marvelous. I know I’ll need the Postgres development package but it depends on the libssl-dev package which is not installable – problably due to software licencing issues. Ah the joy of it all.

I’m still installing and reading code.

By the end of this week I’ll have a direction, another headache and I’ll also know more about software licencing than I want to. Oh the pain…

Quick update.

I spent the last 3 days googling the Net for FLOSS code I could build upon and/or contribute to and discovered a few packages that look real promising.

1. Quasar Accounting from Linux Canada is a recently Open Sourced accounting system written in C++
2. TinyERP is written in Python and uses the GTK windowing toolkit.

Quasar, alas, doesn’t suit my needs and the learning curve for a programmer to get involved, at this stage, is quite steep. There is an Australian agent FutureNet who have a custom version of the POS module with their own back-end for Multi-Lane retail and hospitality applications.

TinyERP intrigues me and is much closer to what I’m looking for so I’ll spend the next couple of days looking under the hood and see how it stacks up.

In the mean time I’ll be setting up a testing server with the prerequisite libraries and tools.

On the short list of distro’s (in no particular order) for my purposes are:

• GenToo,
• Fedora Core 3,
• Ubuntu,
• Centos and
• Debian.

Whichever one installs without problems will be the winner. I’m taking bets. Any guesses?

So what am I’m looking for?

I’m looking for an Open Source package to replace a DOS based system called Equity that I wrote about 17 years ago. Equity is still in daily use by several clients on that other operating system and by me on a linux box under dosemu. It is easy to use and from a programmers perspective was exceptionally easy to enhance and customize.

42 is the answer! At least according to “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy”. It is also the number of weeks for human gestation and the number of weeks I have to build an Open Source Information Management System wrapped around and Accounting core. The project will use Postgres, Python and other OSS components as it progresses.

The project officially starts on Monday May 2nd, 2005.

I will endeavour to jot down progress as often as possible.

I don’t have the time to fight the lowlife, scum bucket, ratbags known as “comment spammers” so I’ve turned comments off for now.