Well, just to give a glimpse into what complexities we are
being faced with, with ever increasingly complex and
interdependent libraries, I would like to relate to
you my day.

So I'm going to try and make my own Gtk3 theme. A
noble effort.

So I here that every release breaks the internal
css engine ( yes, CSS !!!) ... the bane of us all

So in order to get a theme going I figured I would get
the latest version of Gtk+ 3.13. Ok, after figuring out how
to install it, I find the themes don't work as
discussed in the forums, so I decide to backtrack
to the latest stable version 3.12

... lo and behold, the themes worked as advertised

... So I get gtkparasite too, to really play with
the settings

Now, of course I wanted to share my new great theme
with the world, so I fire up my trusty gftp, and
for some reason involving the use of ftps, the
program would hang at "receiving files".

Now, where to find a ftps gui program that worked?
I eventually settle on FileZilla as the only
recommended GUI, but it came down as a binary
Wx file

I wanted source code, so I finally delve
down 5 layers of menus and find the FileZilla
source code

I download it, try to build it and it fails with
an error, needs WxWidgets

no problemo, I get the latest version of Wxwidgets,
and it installs fine

I go back to FileZilla, try to compile, and it says
"soory, you have version 3.0 of Wx, and we need version
2.8.12"

No problem, I get Wx-2.8.12 and try to compile:
It fails with <gtk.h> cursor.h not found

...exasperated, I search for commandline solutions
to do whole directory uploads via ftps

Everyone recommends lftp, so I googled and followed
everyones ftps lftp set commands, but nothing
worked ... lftp's ftps would fail with unknown
protocol everytime

I finally deduced after a git download of lftp's
git repository, and the required git clone of libtool,
that my Perl script using Net::FTPSSL, was the only
thing that worked

What really tore at me, was when the libtool output
lines were flashing by on the screen, they said
Libtool: Doing nothing

There must be an intelligence behind it all. :-)

Perl just does it right, it's my only way to
do ftps ... the C programs be damned. :-)

My understanding now, is that my lsftp, which
comes stock with my Slackware, was built for
SSL, and not TLS encryption, and my ftp
server uses auth TLS

So I spent 5 hours, searching for a complicated
software fixes, because sites are using TLS, and
other software comes with OpenSSL only

But Perl worked, I am proud to report. Out of all
the mucked up software out there, only Perl
would connect, and let me do what I need to do

Finally, this whole diatribe just goes to show,
the value of Tk. Simple to install, no collections
of libs required, and the Tk::Zinc Canvas is the only
decent, documented Perl GUI canvas available to
Perl

Working with software is the game, a maze to get
thru, and a prize waits at the end

I was looking for a Angry Bird's sized new app,
how about a software maze ... you need to show
intelligence and ingenuity to get to some prize
at the center of the software maze

Work thru the javascript, the css, the various
maps that only can be seen with difficult to
install software

I give the idea free to the world, to stimulate
hackers and students everywhere.

I mean it's a great idea, but I don't want to do it. ;-)