[Gdal-dev] Proposal for Unified Windows Binaries

[Ivan Lucena]

Hi there,

> I'd put my vote on MinGW (i.e., gcc) for the official Windows binary
> distribution.

Until 1995 most of the multi-platform open source project comes with
"makefile.bc" for Borland C++ compiler. xwWindows for example, I guess that
xwWidget still have it.

By that time I was able to compile in Solaris, AIX, IRIS and MS-DOS very
easily. But, of course the requirements were much less then what we have
today with.

There is a bunch of good C compiler out there, Symantec, Intel also, but I
guess that Bill Gates won that battle too. Luck Bill.

My point is:

There is a free version of Borland C++ Builder IDE that is called "Turbo C++
Explorer" that you can get from the new Borland subdivision, CodeGear:

http://codegear.com/Default.aspx?tabid=144

The makefile from Borland are a little more Unix-like than Microsoft's and I
don't think that CodeGear have restrictions in the deployment/redistribution
package.

Ivan


-----Original Message-----
From: gdal-dev-bounces at lists.maptools.org
[mailto:gdal-dev-bounces at lists.maptools.org] On Behalf Of Ari Jolma
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 2:00 AM
To: gdal-dev
Subject: Re: [Gdal-dev] Proposal for Unified Windows Binaries

Simon Perkins kirjoitti:
> BTW, I'd like to put in my vote for using Visual Studio 2005 Express 
> for pre-compiled windows binaries. It's free, up to date (at least 
> until Visual Studio Orcas comes out later this year), actually 
> available (unlike VS 2003), includes a proper optimizing compiler, and 
> is generally a nicer bit of software than VS 2003. The manifest thing 
> should be taken care of by the GDAL makefiles.

This (from Wikipedia) worries me:

"Unfortunately, the Express Edition does not include the Visual C++ 
Redistributables and the SP1 version of the redistributables cannot be 
downloaded from Microsoft. This causes deployment problems when using 
Visual C++ 2005 Express Service Pack 1. For example, a "hello world" 
console program (compiled with default settings) will not run on a PC 
that does not already have Visual C++ 2005 Express SP1."

Is it really a working solution? A sidenote: I downloaded it, installed 
it, and then removed it manually (I know, bad habit) from this W2000 
box, now it complains in installation and it seems to require, if not 
reinstallation if Windows, at least some complicated hacks.

At least we should make sure that it is possible to build the bindings 
with other tools against the official GDAL binaries. I think that was 
one of the Howard's original ideas that the bindings wouldn't be in the 
main binary distribution.

I'd put my vote on MinGW (i.e., gcc) for the official Windows binary 
distribution.

Regards,

Ari


-- 
Prof. Ari Jolma
Geoinformaatio- ja paikannustekniikka
Geoinformation and positioning technology
Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology
POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland
Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma

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