Windows binary saga

[Lubomir I. Ivanov]

On 22 September 2015 at 19:05, Dirk Hohndel <dirk at hohndel.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 06:38:11PM +0300, Lubomir I. Ivanov wrote:
>>
>> do you wan't me change the patch so that the "if (NO_MARBLE)" is on top?
>> i do sort of need this patch to be able to build Marble (i.e. use
>> pkg-config) on Win32.
>
> I've taken your patch. Tomaz is planning to rewrite the cmake files,
> anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much right now.
>

ok, understood.

>>
>> > d) what about makensis? autotools?
>> >
>>
>> i say no to autotools and i build i the libraries without it, whatever
>> hacks needed - e.g. libdivecomputer for that i have a custom Makefile
>> - not even a makefile it's just a build.cmd file. the auotools authors
>> really didn't understand the target platform when they ported the
>> toolset.
>
> Autotools are evil squared. We have a couple of packages that really do
> best when built with autotools. libdivecomputer of course. But also
> libcurl and libzip. Both have started to shift to cmake, but in both cases
> it seems that autotools based build is easier to deal with.
>

i'm happily building libzip with cmake (they support it) and i even
sent a couple of suggestions and patches to the libzip people.
they seem quite responsive on the mailing list.

so looking at my libcurl folder it looks pre-built...so i guess, i
lied about building *everything*. i think it was indeed using
autotools when building from source, so thankfully they have the
pre-built dev packages:
http://curl.haxx.se/gknw.net/7.40.0/dist-w32/curl-7.40.0-devel-mingw32.zip

listed here as libcurl:
http://curl.haxx.se/download.html#Win32

>
> I'm curious about your build.cmd file for libdivecomputer. I know that Jef
> cross builds his binaries for Windows as well... have you talked to him
> about what's broken for native builds? I would assume that he'd be open to
> receiving suggestions to improve that.
>

it's just a batch file which sets some defines and traverses/compiles
all needed source files for Win32.

i spoke to him briefly a couple of years ago about autotools and i
think he said that they just work for him.
i've also heard about autotools working for other people on native
Win32, but never for me for some reason.

instead of getting autotools to work everywhere, libdivecomputer
should simply move to cmake.

>> NSIS wise, makensis.exe part of the Win32 package and i've used it
>> back in the GTK version.
>
> Win32 package? you lost me.

just the regular installer/package from here:
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Download

it can be installed in e.g. c:\bin\nsis
and said folder should be put in PATH for makensis.exe.

>
> Let's see how plan A progresses. But fundamentally... this is something I
> want to continue to tackle, even if I get the cross builds to work again.
> I have to think that this would make debugging some of our Windows
> problems so much easier. It's fundamentally why I broke down and wasted
> the money on an ugly monster 15" HP laptop (the cheapest thing I could get
> with decent CPU / RAM and Windows 10 - and as added benefit it has a
> 1366x768 screen - yes, 15.4" screen at 1366x768 resolution) which will
> remind me to keep Subsurface usable on such screen sizes...
>

ok, understood....well, i can help you with preparing the setup.
just drop me an email with questions or to join IRC.

>
> Once I have something that builds again (since I retooled everything again
> last night) I'll let you know.
>
> You're never on IRC anymore... often that's the better way to discuss
> things like this...
>

i can be summoned in IRC via email!

lubomir
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