Compiling can go perfectly with the use of three commands once you have the code in a folder. The three commands are ./configure make make install.

Now these generally work fine, however you can run into dependence problems. I would suggest that you add http://packman.iu-bremen.de /suse/10.0 to your Installation Sources in Yast (select http and enter the url and path in the two fields) and download the apps you need with Yasts Software manager. This works like the Debian repositories for online installation of apps.

Hope this helps