On Sep 8, 2015, at 22:40 , Jeffrey Walton <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at 7:02:32 PM UTC-4, Mouse wrote:
> Crypto++ is a library that is not useful unless linked to some application. 
> IMHO this means that only those who build applications themselves 
> could/should have interest in it. And if a person is able to compile his 
> application - it shouldn’t be too big a big deal for him to compile a library 
> provided in a source form. 
> 
> As an alternative, I’d like to point out several software repositories that 
> serve and maintain Crypto++ in binary form (as a compiled library and a set 
> of header files):….. If there’s no such repository for Windows, what can I 
> say? Crypto++ developers/maintainers have neither time nor desire (and 
> probably not the ability) to maintain binary releases for all the platforms 
> Crypto++ is designed to run on. Windows platform definitely won’t be an 
> exception.
>  
> IMNSHO, I think the prebuilt binaries are a good idea.

Yes, if there’s enough man-hours to maintain it. I can take upon myself 
providing Mac OS X Xcode-based build.

If you feel like taking the Windows binaries - all the glory to you. Needless 
to say, I won’t be able to help in that endeavor. :)

> I think the pain point is we have not adopted a strategic approach and no one 
> has stepped up to offer them.

Approaches can be emulated from other popular crypto packages. Of course 
there’s a possibility that the differences between “us” and “them” would make 
cloning their approach infeasible.

> There's a secondary issue. If someone does step up, then users could suffer 
> the "web effect", where potential garbage shows up all over the web like a 
> feral dog sprays its urine.

:-)  Nothing I know of that we could do to remedy this. :-(

> I've observed the "web effect" with OpenSSL for years. Bad advice shows up 
> everywhere, and bad binaries built on the bad advice show up everywhere. It 
> was one of the reasons we (the OpenSSL devs and a handful of interested 
> folks) started the OpenSSL wiki (we also had good results based on the 
> Crypto++ wiki, and I was able to relay them when arguing for their wiki).

:-)  Nothing I know of that we could do to remedy this. :-(

> 
> The third underlying issue is stale/outdated repos. I've tried to address 
> that with friendly relationships with maintainers, like the Fedora, Ubuntu 
> and Debian maintainers. If we make it easy on them and keep them informed, 
> then they will be more likely to pickup our changes.

Yes!!!

> A fourth and even more subtle reason is distros usually carry the latest 
> stable, and not the cutting edge stuff. So unless we release it and the 
> distro deems it useful, then it won't be picked up. We are positioned to 
> begin moving things forward, so this will be more important in the future.

I don’t think this is a problem. When we release stable version, distros are 
expected to pick it up. Whatever is in Github - they aren’t expected to pick… 
Sounds like a fairly simple choice. :-)

> *****
> 
> When I get some spare cycles, I want to address the strategic gaps and get 
> process in place so we can do the prebuilt binaries.

Alright!

> I want to create them for Windows, and add a Debian or Ubuntu PPA 
> (https://askubuntu.com/questions/4983/what-are-ppas-and-how-do-i-use-them 
> <https://askubuntu.com/questions/4983/what-are-ppas-and-how-do-i-use-them>). 
> I also want something for Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora. Finally, I want to supply 
> the cross-compile stuff.

As I said, I can contribute Mac OS X Xcode clang-based.

> Right now, there are two items that need to be addressed. First, we need a 
> PGP-like long term signing key for releases, but we have not hashed out the 
> details on its storage, access and use.

No-brainer.

> Second, Windows is holding me up because Visual Studio Community is an 
> expiring trial, so I can't do things like convert a project and build the 
> artifacts from the command line using msbuild.exe. (Related: 
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32438478/how-to-upgrade-a-solution-and-project-files-from-the-command-line
>  
> <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32438478/how-to-upgrade-a-solution-and-project-files-from-the-command-line>).

Ah, have fun with this… The above is one of many reasons why I thought that it 
wasn’t feasible to provide Windows prebuilt binaries (unless one is an active 
Windows developer, with all the toolchains already acquired and set up).

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