Programming and Scripting :: Compile/install GTK2 developing enviroment?

Hi!
I am new to programming in Linux and decided to look in to GTK2.
As this is not included and you can not download it from MyDSL, I have to compile it myself.
I downloaded and started with the configuration.
Got the message that I was missing other dependensis packages, like glib.
Ok, so I downloaded glib and started the configuration of glib. There I got another message of dependenses to glib, gettext or GNU gettext.
So for how long does this chain goes on with missing dependenses?
Seems like I need lots of other packages, am I right?
Is it a real big project to get GTK2 installed in DSL?

Many thanks for all help!

Marcus

original here.