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I
just started using Dev-Cpp. I like the fact that it is portable but the claim
that by using the Devpaks are a good thing because even a beginner could run
projects from them is not true. People need to be aware of this.
I
tried the Allegro Devpaks but they don't work. For example, the Allegro5
Devpak installs, but when I try also installing the Allegro GUI Un-uglification
Project Devpak, it refuses to install because it says I don't have the
Allegro Devpak installed. This is not a problem a beginner could resolve. The
internal naming conventions are the problem, so the Allegro5 Devpak is
internally named as Allegro5 instead of Allegro. Bad move.
So
then I uninstalled Allegro5 and installed the Allegro4.4.2 Devpak. Okay, now the
Allegro GUI Un-uglification Project Devpak installs, so now onto the next
problem. Allegro4.4.2 won't compile. Why not? Well I want to compile a
32-bit program but the compile log says Allegro4.4.2 isn't compatible with
64-bit. Shit! That's when I realize that none of the Devpaks tell me if they are
32-bit or 64-bit, I would have to try each one, one at a time, and see if any of
the them is a 32-bit version.
But
wait! There is more! Before doing that, I tried compiling my project as a 64-bit
project anyways, and guess what? It doesn't work! Why not? At first I couldn't
tell, but then I noticed that the compiler was looking for a file named
"lallegro-4.2.2-monolith-mt" but in the lib directory installed by the Devpak,
the file is named "liballegro-4.2.2-monolith-mt". Do you think a beginner is
going to solve that problem?
All
this tells me is that the Devpaks are a joke. They aren't documented very well.
They need a comment section so people can give feedback on whether they really
work, or whether they use the proper naming convention (i.e. -- "lib"
instead of "l"), and so on. Because there is no feedback or control, I can't
trust Devpaks. People can put anything they want in it, which just makes
programming all the more difficult when you run into problems. And good luck if
you want to upgrade your project from version 4.2.2 to 4.2.3, since the libs and
headers could have anything in them, meaning you have no guarantee of
compatibility.
I
hope the allegro.cc instructions for compiling the Allegro
binaries/libraries for yourself is complete and works, because if they aren't,
I'm not going to be using Allegro.
You
need to recommend that Devpaks are not to be trusted and you should not use them
... unless you know how to fix the numerous problems that Devpaks have
presented.