[OSGeo-Discuss] RE : Re: OSGEO4W future

Sat Sep 21 15:35:10 PDT 2013

Gerald,

There are so many decisions that should be made regarding to either the
suggested directions to follow, or the technical details, which might apply
for a PSC indeed.

You've meant to prepare something for the developers (something like what
I've indended to do with the binaries at http://www.gisinternals.com/sdk/)
which is probably different as what the end user would expect. Development
SDKs would support to compile all versions especially the latest
development version, while the production edition should be based on the
latest stable releases. A testing edition would probably be based on the
current development or stable branches providing daily built binaries if
possible.

Switching from one version to another might also require a policy as
upgrading a lower level library may definitely break the upper level
binaries. Either the projects or the multiple versions of a specific
project may require different versions of the same dependencies that should
also be pointed out somewhere.

We (with Jürgen and Paolo) have also been talking about whether to use a
freeware compiler edition (like Visual Studio 2010 Express) which doesn't
seem to contain x64 support unless a proper Windows SDK is installed or we
make our life less painful to let OSGeo to purchase one license of the full
version of MSVC 2010 to be installed on the VM. Furthermore  we should also
evaluate all projects (to be supported by OSGeo) regarding to their need of
the compilers/environments for both x86/x64 which should also be installed
on the VM.

One other decision should also be made about the suggested scripting
environment to be used for automating the compilation, whether to use
nmake/batch file/bash whatever and how the compilation process itself will
be organized. I'm not sure I can enumerate all possible aspects but we
would require quite some negotiation, and to test what works and what not
(for each project).
We may also require to tweak / modify the external libraries (adding
makefiles of fixing issues) which should also be tracked somewhere.

Most projects may have scripting interfaces using further dependecies
required for the compilation like SWIG/Java/Python/C#. Which Java SDK or
SWIG version should be used, which Python version(s) should be supported?

Is that the responsibility of the projects to provide their scripts to
control the compilation of their binaries at OSGeo4w. Would that be a
requirement to add their OSGeo4w build/install controller scripts along
with their sources?

Some projects may not support MSVC builds do they require a completely
different framework (ie. msys/mingw) which can or cannot work along with
the MSVC based dependencies or we force the project to author their nmake
or cmake based makefiles as a prerequisite to be included in OSGeo4w?

We should also make sure whether the licensing model of a project (or
dependency) allows or denies the inclusion of that in OSGeo4w.

And so on.... (anyone is welcomed to add further experiences or ideas)

Best regards,

Tamas

2013/9/21 Fenoy Gerald <gerald.fenoy at geolabs.fr>

> Alex,
> thanks a lot for such kind of answer.
>
> In fact what I have in mind is more to provide a "build suite", I
> definitely don't know how to name it.
>
> Anyway, let say something that make you able to download this or that
> software and which will make sure that you will get everything required to
> build this specific project installed in your OSGeo4W environment. I think
> of cmake or mingw for instance.
>
> I think about a tool which let you set some parameters where you can
> define the compiler version you want to use (or the path to the script
> which setup environment variables, we may also think of adding some
> optional command line options to this batch script (if required but, I'm
> pretty sure it is required).
>
> This way, you choose one software you want to build from source from the
> OSGeo4W, then all the dependencies will be setup (packages in their dev
> versions), the required tools are setup (if not already setup as another
> software requirement) then the build is done from the OSGeo4W installer.
> Obviously, the source code should still be available after the build
> finished. If we can provide such a thing it means that you can apply after
> build finish the patches you want to apply on one software before building
> it again with fixes.
>
> I think it may be a great gain of time for Lazy Developers, as I am.
>
> I hope my answer is clear enough this time.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Gérald Fenoy
> http://www.osgeo.org
>
>
> Le 21 sept. 2013 à 02:01, Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com> a
> écrit :
>
> > On 09/20/2013 05:33 PM, Dave Patton wrote:
> >> On 2013/09/20 16:39, Alex Mandel wrote:
> >>
> >>> Unlike OSGeoLive we can't supply VMs as that takes paid licenses for
> >>> the software in question.
> >>
> >> Alex - could you please clarify what you mean by this statement.
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >>
> >
> > We can't give out Windows Virtual Machine(VM) images with Visual Studio
> > already installed. The Licensing terms of Windows and Visual studio
> > don't allow for that, even if the end user has a valid license its
> > probably not legal. The only exception might be if we make a Windows
> > Azure image that can be cloned on that platform, since I believe paying
> > for an Azure instance automatically gives you the Windows License.
> >
> > Which is different from Ubuntu (what we build OSGeoLive on top of), free
> > and open source software that is gratis too. We can build derivates all
> > we want and hand them out.
> >
> > Were you thinking I meant something else?
> >
> > What we can do is create an installer or scripts that makes it easier to
> > deploy a build environment on top of an already installed Windows, I
> > defer this back to being a subcomponent of osgeo4w.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Alex
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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