installing two things

Well, you must specify what you downloaded. Did you download the source code? (tarballs) Did you download a package? If you downloaded source, the general rule is:

1. Unarchive the tarball
2. In the command prompt, cd to the directory that contains the source code
3. "./configure"
4. "make"
5. [get root access if necessary]
6. "make install"

If you get errors, chances are that something needed is not installed or is out of date. Check the documentation for more details.

Well, I did the ./configure thing, and it brought up some text (shown in attached picture), then I typed "make" and it brought up an error (shown in picture)

Oh, you haven't installed a compiler yet! Open your package manager, and look for the following packages:

GCC
G++
Automake (perhaps)

Then try it.

Ok. So I installed everything in the "development" category of packages. now it comes up with this error message (after compiling for about 3 minutes)

Means that you need the package called "xorg-x11-libs". You can get an RPM for it from Red Hat's package manager.

if you were to use a recent fedora (from the screenshot it looks like you're on redhat 9 or fc1?) you could use yum and just type (as su)

yum install gambas

and it would go and find all the prerequisite software, install that then install gambas.

as for phoenix object basic i have no idea how it comes. if they supply an RPM then type (again as su)

rpm -Uvh phoneix-object-basic-xyz.rpm

or if as code do as joe said

yum (or apt-get for debian users) is definately the way forward - makes this sort of stuff take minutes rather than hours/days/weeks

edit :

another package you may want to try out is monodevelop with the vb.net stuff. md is a really nice ide

i am on redhat 9. is there a yum command in rh9?

i am on redhat 9. is there a yum command in rh9?

I doubt it. I think they only added it in the newer versions of Fedora Core. Try to get RPMs for both packages; that's probably easier than compiling. Then use rpm -Uvh package.rpm to install it.

thank you google! i typed in rpms for gambas and got it... now i have to install it! yay

NEW:
i downloaded it, and when i type: rpm -Uvh gambas-0.9.3 (ECT) and hit enter, it says:

Ah, those are dependancies. Many packages depend on others before they can work. So, you need the following rpms installed first:
http://www.wesmo.com/rpm2html/contributed/RPMS/MySQL-shared-3.23.57-1.i386.html
http://rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/conectiva/snapshot/i386/RPMS.extra/libpq3-7.4.7-75887cl.i386.html
http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/PLD/dists/ra/updates/general/i386/libsqlite-2.8.12-1.i386.html

see thats why i love this forum... you guys teach me about stuff when i ask you a question. you give me a more in-depth answer, not just the links.

do I need any flags when installing the dependancies? (-Uvh?)

do I need any flags when installing the dependancies? (-Uvh?)

no. you can install them all in one go:

rpm -Uvh package1.rpm package2.rpm package3.rpm

this helps if you have circular dependencies as they should be taken care of without any --force ugliness.

I have a feeling though that the other packages may also have dependencies; and their dependencies may have other dependencies.

Yum(or aptitude for debian users) is the way forward; it takes care of all of this with a simple command

is there a way to install this YUM in redhat9????

is there a way to install this YUM in redhat9????

No, afaik.

Redhat 9 came out about 3 years ago - a lot has happened since then.

Your best bet is to go with either:
Fedora Core
or
CentOS

If you don't have broadband there are companies who will send you CD images for a couple of pounds/dollars, a quick google search will point you in the right direction.

Upgrading may seem like a pain in the arse but it will make installing modern software easy(/ier).

question:

centos: i do have broadband (yay). is the following acceptable for CentOS?

4GB HD
256MB RAM
ATI Rage64 Video Card (4MB)
???? Sound Card
333 MHz CPU

?

question:

centos: i do have broadband (yay). is the following acceptable for CentOS?

http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/print.php?form=2&forum=27&topic_id=5210&post_id=15555
So no, not really. It would probably be possible, but it will run really slow, and you might get frustrated. Choose something with lighter system requirements, such as Debian.

http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/print.php?form=2&forum=27&topic_id=5210&post_id=15555
So no, not really. It would probably be possible, but it will run really slow, and you might get frustrated. Choose something with lighter system requirements, such as Debian.

Joe is right, for a easy to install and light debian-like distro I think xubuntu is a good option; it runs XFCE rather than Gnome or KDE so should run faster on your machine.