[rescue] compiling old software re: emacs on SunOS 4.1.4

[john]

You can probably divine that I don't know what I'm doing from these 
notes, but...

I, too, use vi almost exclusively, not only on the Sparc10, but also the 
half dozen RasberryPi's soldiering away at various tasks around the 
house, and of course the Linux machines and spouse's damned AppleAir.

I still have a SPARCprinter1 - and it works too. I needed Ghostprint to 
enable it to print stuff which NewsPrint couldn't handle. This meant 
brining up GCC using the old resident 4.1.4 cc. This went pretty well 
especially because notes I found on the web alerted me to potential 
problems.B  Eventually I got gcc 2.9.5 running and then ghostprint.B  And 
yes, the sparc10 is a print server which will print anything we send it 
from linux or the apple.B  I haven't been able to get windows 10 to deal 
with it because I haven't figured out how to get the PPD info into some 
form that the Windows printer routine can understand.

I then thought it would be nice if I could get VNC running on the 
SPARC10.B  I could display Xclock from the Sun on other machines, but 
nothing more complex.B  VNC would be nice, but I ran into a host of 
dependency problems trying to compile it.

So my question is: Is it possible that when I try to compile what 
purports to be 1995 vintage code, someone has doctored up the 
configuration files to expect a more modern environment?B  For example, I 
was able to get GMAKE compiled, but then it didn't like my SED, and so I 
tried updating SED and ran into other things it didn't like. It looked 
like an endless treasure hunt. I gave up.

There is also the problem of patches and how far up one should bring a 
system.B  I decided to patch up to 2000, among other things so DATE would 
work right. I would think I could run into trouble trying to compile 
1995 code on a machine patched to 2000.

The original motivation for keeping the SS10 running was so I could run 
a 1992 version of a solid modeling package i had a license for.B  After 
doing all sorts of upgrades and going to microSd drive and two ross 
hypersparc processors and a whole lot of RAM, I decided it would be 
better to work on a modern solid-modeler.B  I subscribed to CREO, which 
is quite good but runs on Windows 10.B  Now, except for the printing, the 
SS10 has nothing to do.B  I would like to bring up VNC, but it looks like 
a month's work and I don't have THAT much time.

as to crackerjack, there's a prize in there somewhere if only I can find it.

john