1.1.1. Dependencies

J-Ben is dependent on the following:

• GTK+/GTKmm: J-Ben is now developed using GTK on all platforms. Any recent version should work, but here's a listing of some of the libraries previously in use on my Linux system:

  • GTK+: 2.12.9
  • GLib: 2.16.1
  • Cairo: 1.4.10
  • libsigc++: 2.0.18
  • GTKmm/GLibmm/etc.: roughly matching versions

• The Boost Libraries: J-Ben should work with boost 1.34.1 or later.

1.1.2. Linux users

Ensure you have the development packages for the above listed libraries installed. Then, run "make", followed by "make download" to download dictionary files and optional stroke order diagrams. (J-Ben will NOT work properly unless at least one kanji and one word dictionary are installed!) Finally, as root, run "make install" to finish the installation.

1.1.3. Windows users

NOTE: These instructions are only for people building J-Ben from source code. If you just want to use J-Ben, proceed to Installing J-Ben.

Windows builds are more challenging in large because setting up the dependent libraries is more of a chore. The situation is improving; since the time of writing (November 2008) there are now decent development packages for GTK+ and GTKmm. However, it still takes time, potentially several hours, to properly set up a build environment on Windows. As such, I strongly recommend -against- building from source unless you have a really good reason to do so.

That being said, the Windows development environment supported is MinGW with MSys. Other environments for Windows are currently unsupported.

If you want to give it a try, do the following:

• Ensure that you have pkg-config, 7-zip and makensis in your path, or add them in after starting MSys.
• Change the variables in the "WINDOWS-SPECIFIC" section of the makefile as needed.
• Build using the following commands:

  make -f Makefile.win
  make -f Makefile.win download
  make -f Makefile.win install

If there is demand for more detailed Windows build instructions, I will provide them in a later version of this manual.