Ubuntu

stdio.h AGAIN! What is wrong with you people?

Asked by Rickr765

In Ubuntu 6 and 7, stdio.h is not installed by default. To compile a simple C program, it was necessary to do "sudo apt-get install build-essential" on every installation. This was incredibly stupid, but never got fixed.

Now, in Ubuntu 8, even THAT cryptic garbage doesn't work anymore! I can't believe that NOBODY at Ubuntu cares about fixing this glaring, obvious problem!

<rant> Does anybody ever test Linux at all? I'm a professional programmer with over 30 years experience, plenty of it in Unix, and yet I can't use a Linux system for more than 5 minutes without finding glaring, obvious problems? If you guys want respect, TEST your crap before throwing it out the door.</rant>

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Rickr765 (rickr765) said : 		#1

Apparently after you install other dev packages, the apt-get command works. You just can't install the build-essential without having the other packages installed first.

I still think this is a mess, and people have been complaining about it for years, but I doubt anyone will ever fix it.

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Jonathan Marsden (jmarsden) said : 		#2

Professional programmers are not the primary intended user base for Ubuntu. Most 'normal' Ubuntu users do not know or care how to program in C. So development tools are not all included on the (single) CD, but can be trivially added to the system after the base install is complete.

In Ubuntu 8.04 I was able to program in C (and other languages) after doing

sudo apt-get install build-essential

The file /usr/include/stdio.h is installed by the libc6-dev package, which the build-essential meta-package depends on (and so causes to be installed automatically by the apt-get install command above).

Ubuntu is indeed tested before release. Your test criteria do not seem to be the same as those used by the Ubuntu testers, perhaps because their target users are not professional programmers like yourself, but ordinary people who want the freedom to use their computers effectively.

Jonathan

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Rickr765 (rickr765) said : 		#3

Don't you think that developers should be able to compile programs after installing the GCC package?  They shouldn't have to open a command line and do an apt-get command - which they have to find out about by searching the forums?  I mean, people don't *intentionally* make the system difficult for *developers* to use, do they?

Maybe they do... there are at least a dozen messages about this going back years, and nobody's fixed it yet.

BTW, are there two independent forums?  That seems confusing too.

--- On Tue, 7/22/08, Jonathan Marsden <email address hidden> wrote:
From: Jonathan Marsden <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #39883]: stdio.h AGAIN! What is wrong with you people?
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 1:45 AM

Your question #39883 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/39883

Jonathan Marsden posted a new comment:
Professional programmers are not the primary intended user base for
Ubuntu. Most 'normal' Ubuntu users do not know or care how to program
in C. So development tools are not all included on the (single) CD, but
can be trivially added to the system after the base install is complete.

In Ubuntu 8.04 I was able to program in C (and other languages) after
doing

sudo apt-get install build-essential

The file /usr/include/stdio.h is installed by the libc6-dev package,
which the build-essential meta-package depends on (and so causes to be
installed automatically by the apt-get install command above).

Ubuntu is indeed tested before release. Your test criteria do not seem
to be the same as those used by the Ubuntu testers, perhaps because
their target users are not professional programmers like yourself, but
ordinary people who want the freedom to use their computers effectively.

Jonathan

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