[Gdal-dev] Visual Studio "Makefile" Project

[Frank Warmerdam]

Simon Perkins wrote:
  > I guess this project file is relatively harmless, but I wonder if we're
> putting too many different parallel build systems into the GDAL source 
> tree. There are already unix makefiles, Visual Studio makefiles, WinCE 
> projects files, and now this one. In addition, there are externally 
> maintained VS 2003 project files to build GDAL directly. And of course 
> if you run VS 2005 (hey, this is 2007 after all...), then these project 
> files all have to be converted to the new VS 2005 to use them, and then 
> changes can't be committed back to the repository. Apart from the 
> aesthetically unpleasing clutter, there's all the effort that goes into 
> maintaining these distinct build systems and keeping them in sync with 
> the source code.

Simon,

I'll say this in favor of this addition, at least it is just a small parent
project file and it will keep "up to date" as long as the standard
makefile.vc files work.

I think the windows ce build stuff has been segregated off in their own
directory

> - Creating a contrib or extras directory in the GDAL main directory 
> where people can feel free to add builds scripts (and whatever else) for 
> as many different systems as they like.
 >
> - Creating a separate gdal-contrib SVN directory in parallel with gdal 
> directory where extras can go.

I'm not adverse to either of the above, though it won't make it any
more likely that they are kept up to date.

> - Putting the effort into getting a true general purpose build system in 
> place such as cmake, which could then ultimately replace all the other 
> build scripts.

This would be nice, if it worked out smoothly and there was someone to
do it.  But I am dubious about both of those.  And a complete rework of
the build system is going to cause a lot of churn and pain.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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