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Good old BST (Brad's Spin Tool) - Page 3 — Parallax Forums

Good old BST (Brad's Spin Tool)

13

Comments

  • mparkmpark Posts: 1,305
    Wow, MPark, good to hear that.
    I didn't mean to imply that you were.



    At least you remember that I'm mpark, not mark!

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    You are lucky, sometimes I am "heather" around here.
  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366
    BST was written in Lazarus! Lazarus - that is the point. It gives you one executable that works. You only have to unpack it and run. It gives one source to compile for Win, Lin, Mac and more.

    Translate these IDEs to Lazarus, then you need no .deb and .rpm. Unpack the zip, add +x property and run.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2015-07-10 18:28
    Not so fast pik33. 
    Lazarus does a good job of allowing the same source to be built for various platforms. But any resulting binary will become unusable eventually. Machines change, operating systems change, libraries it depends on change. This requires constant rebuilding for platforms as they evolve. When the developer drops out, as happened with BST, things start to fail as the binary "rots".
    Worse than that, in my company we have some big old apps that are built with Lazarus. Nobody has managed to get them to build on the Mac yet. Something to do with missing or incompatible libraries.  The Linux builds have problems with their graphical display. 
    Lazarus is supposed to have risen from the dead. This Lazarus is still dead as far as I can tell.

     
  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366
    If someone wrote Lazarus program linking it to Windows API libraries which is of course possible, but not recommended, then you cannot build it on mac without rewriting. But.. I wrote an application, or rather left it in working alpha :(  stage http://sourceforge.net/projects/pc-softsynth/ - it took less than one hour to port it to Raspberry Pi
  • Well, I got Debian to install on my laptop and I am browsing the forum with it! I still don't have wireless but will work on that next.  I can't seem to find the address for Brads site to download BST. Anyone?
    Jim
  • Thanks Heater
  • Anyone know where to get a Linux compatible propeller font file?
    Jim
  • i think the font file is just a ttf. copy it from windows to linux and, if debian, place it in a directory named $HOME/fonts (or maybe $HOME/.fonts  - i can't remember)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    It's just a font file it just works. If you know what to do with it on your system, see SwimDude's post above.
    However I always found that other fonts available out of the box in Debian looked better than the Parallax font.
  • Ok, so I downloaded BST.linux and unzipped it into a folder named BST and the file manager says it is there and that it is a program, but I cannot get it to execute.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2015-07-16 00:50
    RSM_Jim What happens when you try to run it? Presumably some messages come out. I just tried it on my Debian Jessie 64 bit machine. No luck:
    Aahgrrr....I give up BST is dead. Basically it's a 32 bit executable and I have a 64 bit machine. One can enable i386 packages on Debian and then install all the 32 bit builds of the libraries.

    Seems I can't find the named libraries using apt-cache search and I don't really want all that Smile on here anyway.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    BINGO! Got BST running on Debian Jessie 64 bit. Turns out to be easy:
    $ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get upgrade
    $ sudo apt-get install libsdl2-2.0-0:i386
    $ sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386
    $ $ unzip bst-0.19.3.linux.zip 
    Archive:  bst-0.19.3.linux.zip
      inflating: bst.linux               
    $ ./bst.linux
    
    Yay, it works!
  • BINGO! Got BST running on Debian Jessie 64 bit. Turns out to be easy:
    $ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get upgrade
    $ sudo apt-get install libsdl2-2.0-0:i386
    $ sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386
    $ $ unzip bst-0.19.3.linux.zip 
    Archive:  bst-0.19.3.linux.zip
      inflating: bst.linux               
    $ ./bst.linux
    
    Yay, it works!


    Good, I was about to give you a serve for your previous reply :)
  • Heater,
    Glad to see you got it running. I will try your unzip sequence and see it that works. I used the archive tool and tried to run under bash in terminal and only got a file not found error. No time to work on it until Sunday.
    Jim
  • Did try your unzip technique, enter command under terminal both from the home screen ant the bst folder and get message not found ???wtf
    Jim
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    You are typing "./bst.linux" in a directory that contains bst.linux right?
  • RS_Jim,
    Double check your PATH and LIBPATH (may be LD_LIBRARY_PATH) vars in your environment, missing path in the search path will give you a not found.
    Been a while since I powered up the unix box, but there is a command ldd which can tell you what libraries the program requires. ldd bst.linux and then compare the results against what you have installed. Install the missing items and if the PATH and LIBPATH vars are correcte, you should be able to run.
    Also make sure to set the user (and maybe group) executable flag on the bst.linux file.
  • RS_JimRS_Jim Posts: 1,765
    edited 2015-07-17 12:44



    You are typing "./bst.linux" in a directory that contains bst.linux right?



    Yes
  • This is very curious.

    If you can, please capture and post the output from the following commands:

    $ pwd
    $ ls -l bst.linux
    $ ./bst.linux

    This is on Fedora 22 with 32-bit support installed. I just unzipped bst-0.19.3.linux.zip into my home directory and then did those three commands and got this:

    [rapost@toshi ~]$ pwd
    /home/rapost
    [rapost@toshi ~]$ ls -l bst.linux
    -rwxr-xr-x. 1 rapost rapost 3167888 Mar 10  2010 bst.linux
    [rapost@toshi ~]$ ./bst.linux

    (bst.linux:4881): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",

    (bst.linux:4881): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",
    Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "pk-gtk-module"
    Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
    [WARNING] Out of OEM specific VK codes, changing to unassigned
    [WARNING] Out of unassigned VK codes, assigning $FF

    After this last message, the bst window popped open on my monitor. The only strange thing you might see is a non-Parallax font but that can be corrected.


  • mindrobots,
    Got that partially tested, but no time available. I am working long hours this week. I do need to find out how to cut and paste from terminal to iceweasel in Debian.
    Jim
  • i'm not sure which terminal you're using, but a few (many?) of them use control + shift + c and control + shift + v for copy/paste
  • Swimdude,
    First thing I tried,seems to be a windoz command.
    Jim
  • yetiyeti Posts: 818
    edited 2015-07-23 16:34
    I do need to find out how to cut and paste from terminal to iceweasel in Debian.


    8<
    (yeti@aurora:1)~$ echo typing in Xterm...
    typing in Xterm...
    (yeti@aurora:1)~$ echo $((RANDOM))
    18735
    >8

    The above lines were transferred from Xterm to Iceweasel (on Debian8/Jessie) by selecting them via mouse in Xterm and pasting them into the forum's editor by using the middle mouse button.
    (middle normally is emulated by using left & right buttons together on 2 button mice)
  • I do need to find out how to cut and paste from terminal to iceweasel in Debian.

    Thanks, I will give that a try.
    Jim


    8<
    (yeti@aurora:1)~$ echo typing in Xterm...
    typing in Xterm...
    (yeti@aurora:1)~$ echo $((RANDOM))
    18735
    >8

    The above lines were transferred from Xterm to Iceweasel (on Debian8/Jessie) by selecting them via mouse in Xterm and pasting them into the forum's editor by using the middle mouse button.
    (middle normally is emulated by using left & right buttons together on 2 button mice)



  • I finally got a copy and paste function to work.
    here is what i got.
    jim@debian:~$ ls -l bst.linux
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 jim jim 3167888 Mar  9  2010 bst.linux
    jim@debian:~$ ./bst.linux
    bash: ./bst.linux: No such file or directory

  • yetiyeti Posts: 818
    edited 2015-07-27 13:02
    (yeti@aurora:1)~/wrk/propeller/bst$ uname -srLinux 3.16.0-4-amd64(yeti@aurora:1)~/wrk/propeller/bst$ cat /etc/debian_version 8.1(yeti@aurora:1)~/wrk/propeller/bst$ ls -l
    total 7492-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti  128660 Jan 21  2012 PropBasic-bst-00.01.14-79-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti 3167888 Mar 10  2010 bst-0.19.3-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti 3196704 Apr 20  2010 bst-0.19.4-pre9-rw-r--r-- 1 yeti yeti  713242 Aug  7  2010 bst_manual_0.04.pdflrwxrwxrwx 1 yeti yeti      11 Feb 21  2014 bstc -> bstc-0.15.3-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti  143652 Jul 20  2009 bstc-0.15.3-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti  149412 Apr 21  2010 bstc-0.15.4-pre9-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti  103676 Jul  3  2009 bstl-0.05-rwxr-xr-x 1 yeti yeti   45752 Apr 28  2010 bstl-0.07-pre1(yeti@aurora:1)~/wrk/propeller/bst$ ./bst-0.19.3 bash: ./bst-0.19.3: No such file or directory(yeti@aurora:1)~/wrk/propeller/bst$ ldd bst-0.19.3        not a dynamic executable(yeti@aurora:1)~/wrk/propeller/bst$ file bst-0.19.3 bst-0.19.3: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, stripped
    Probably you are trying to run a 32bit program on a 64bit Debian... this is possible but duplicates lots of support libraries and infrastructure by installing half a 32bit Debian in parallel to the existing 64bit version.
    So I decided not to go this way and to use OpenSpin instead...
    BST is a dead horse... the source may or may not be lost but it is near to 100% certain that here will be no new BST releases.
    So better let's search the last bugs in OpenSpin and persuade it's author to add all the features we are still missing... o;-)
    8<
    {Edit:20150727-1417-CEST}
    >8
    Being curious I tried to use http://statifier.sourceforge.net/ on a 32bitish Debian8.1 to make BST "pseudostatic" on that system. Statifier could be built but running "statifier dynamicBSTinputFILEname statifiedBSToutputFILEname" threw out gdb-ish errors I did not understand (and forgot to log).:-(
    8<
    {Happy(?) End.}
    >8
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    RS_JIm,
    It sounds like you have a 64 bit install of Debian and are trying to run BST which is 32 bit only.
    It can be made to run on your machine. See my instructions above here:
    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1337025/#Comment_1337025

    I do agree though. BST is dead and it's better we hassle with OpenSpin and PropellerIDE from now on. 

  • Heater, does PropellerIDE handle; the #def as BST did? I have 2 programs for sdram and a TFT graphics display that require BST.
    Sorry to interrupt!
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