If you run pdfpc without installing it, it is broken. It can't find a keybinding configuration file, so the result is that no keybindings work and you can't do anything. This can be worked around by copying a configuration file to ~/.pdfpcrc.
However, I generally try software in the compilation directory before installing it. (And quite often never actually do install it; this is the case with pdfpc.) If it doesn't work, I'm probably not going to continue with the install. So pdfpc should manage to get some default keybindings set up when its running uninstalled.
I see two general approaches:
Hard code default keybindings into the binary, either directly in the vala code or by incorporating the default pdfpcrc file during compilation. This would also keep pdfpc from breaking if /etc gets hosed somehow.
Try to load the default keybindings from the relative location in the build tree. This won't help us in other situations, but it's likely easier to do.
If you run pdfpc without installing it, it is broken. It can't find a keybinding configuration file, so the result is that no keybindings work and you can't do anything. This can be worked around by copying a configuration file to ~/.pdfpcrc.
However, I generally try software in the compilation directory before installing it. (And quite often never actually do install it; this is the case with pdfpc.) If it doesn't work, I'm probably not going to continue with the install. So pdfpc should manage to get some default keybindings set up when its running uninstalled.
I see two general approaches: