MapServer and Borland C++

[Stephen Lime]

This speaks to the problems with Windows and the reliance on canned apps, hope nothing goes wrong where source would come in handy. There don't seem to be any decent free Windows compilers outside of the pain involved with cygwin and gcc. BTW VC++ is $99 US. It makes no sense to me to support compilers other than VC++ since what most Windows users really want is a binary distribution. It's amazing that a prime server platform is such a pain to support.

What is really needed is an InstallShield version of MapServer. Actually a couple (i.e. w or w/o proj, gd versions etc) would be best. I think this is a role the University could possibly fill, any volunteers? Should be possible to set up an environment where the Windows distribution is kept in sync with the CVS. Sure would be worth the effort and would greatly add to MapServer credibility.

Steve

>>> Lyndon Zimmermann <lyndon.zimmermann at adelaide.edu.au> 09/27/00 19:50 PM >>>
Daniel,

The desire and necessity for UNIX users to compile from source to suit their
particular machine can be accepted as a given, and I presume they all have compilers
with their operating system, making them effectively free.  Windows users typically
don't get the source code and don't compile their applications before use.  A Windows
compiler is relatively big bucks (I think MS VC/C++ is in the order of A$600 full
price) and high complexity - so much for "Open Source".

I suppose I would ask those doing development of Windows compilation to use a free
compiler rather than an expensive one, or forget about the instructions, Makefiles
etc and just distribute the Windows executable.

PS, I do plan to repeat this exercise under Linux, but I'm currently locked into
delivering on NT.

Regards,

Lyndon Z

Daniel Morissette wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Back to the question of whether MapServer can be compiled with the
> Borland compiler:  I withdraw what I wrote in my previoyus message...
> it's probably not that simple.
>
> I got the Borland C++ 5.5 command-line compiler (available as freeware
> from the Borland web site in case anyone is interested!) and did a
> couple of quick tests.  Adapting the makefiles was not too bad, but I
> stopped when I started getting errors in the project.h (PROJ.4) header
> file.  Which implies that there would also be work required in some of
> the modules that MapServer uses before we can compile MapServer itself
> with Borland.
>
> Since it's not a trivial task, I think I'll give up for now.  However,
> I'm wondering if there is enough interest to justify supporting the
> Borland compiler???
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>  Daniel Morissette                       danmo at videotron.ca
>               http://pages.infinit.net/danmo/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>   Don't put for tomorrow what you can do today, because if
>       you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.

--
Lyndon Zimmermann
BE (Mech Adelaide) Grad Dip Bus Admin (UniSA)

Biomass Energy Atlas for Australia Co-ordinator
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