[postgis-devel] Compilation using Visual C++ 8.0

[Mateusz Loskot]

Mark Cave-Ayland wrote:
> Mateusz Loskot wrote:
>>> - I don't see any evidence of building liblwgeom into a static 
>>> library. This is needed because not only does the library link 
>>> with postgis-1.4.dll, but also with the shapefile loaders. I 
>>> think this is also a critical part of the build to get right.
>> 
>> See liblwgeom.vcproj which produces liblwgeom.lib
> 
> Okay, now I see - sorry I must have skimmed this when I read the 
> patch. So I can see that liblwgeom is now built from source, but I 
> still can't see invocation of the parser utilities such as flex/bison
>  to generate lex.yy.c/wktparse.tab.c from source.

These files are available in the trunk, so I've not added extra steps.
However, it should be possible to define pre-build step and use
bison/flex from GnuWin32 package.

>>> Also I'd like to see evidence of a clean regression run from an 
>>> MSVC build before committing some of this into the repository - 
>>> just because it builds doesn't necessarily mean that it works ;)
>> 
>> You are right. I've run some of tests I selected randomly, i.e. 
>> regress.sql but I have not run full regress package.
>> 
>> Just to make things clear, I've prepared the build using Visual C++
>>  as a proof of concept, to show that there is no rocket science 
>> necessary to make it working, without using MinGW. However, I'm not
>>  going to pursue to submit it to the official PostGIS tree. I'm
>> also not going to become maintainer of this configuration. I'm only
>>  going to update it if I have a free gap in my time or if I need it
>>  working myself.
> 
> Then unfortunately I think this project is probably dead :(

Yes, I'm aware of that :-)

> Since the new build system has been overhauled,

What's the new build system?

> I've pointed out several times that an MSVC build should now be 
> relatively easy to do, it just needs someone to support it because 
> the MS build tools live in their own little universe away from 
> everyone else. I think that the work you've done here is great, but 
> it comes back to the core issue that no one is willing to step up and
>  maintain the MSVC build.

Understood.

If time allows, I will post updates on my website. So, if anyone will
be interested in testing/using it, then it's there.

> From a personal perspective, I'm happy with MingW because the 
> existing build system just works whether it's on Windows or Linux. I 
> can get backtraces if required with gdb, and if I want a debug GUI 
> then I can always stretch to Eclipse/CDT.

OK

> There is just no way we can justify forcing developers to maintain 
> parts of the MSVC builds which most of them can't even test just for 
> the sake of one platform.

Agreed.

Anyways, that was an interesting experience to me and perhaps
somebody will find the results useful too.
Mark, thanks for your time!

Best regards,
-- 
Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net