> Would it be possible to generate a new automated build for mingw?  If
> I remember correctly the mingw build-bots were down?

Perhaps it's time to rethink the current automated build strategy with an eye 
on dramatic simplification. Something that's less onerous, less complex, and 
more in line with the current project resourcing realities.

Buildbot may be great for CI, but is it overkill for automated release builds?

How often are automated builds really needed? Once a week? Once a month? Once a 
quarter?

Are binary downloads for multiple platform types really necessary if great 
build wiki documentation is available and maintained?

IMO, it's time to focus on something foundational and sustainable. As a 
strawman for discussion, I'm thinking of:

1) automated binary downloads once a month for only plain vanilla 
i686-w64-mingw32 and x86_64-w64-mingw32 native builds.
2) high-quality wiki documentation for building plain vanilla on Arch, Ubuntu, 
FreeBSD, and OSX.
3) no changes to the existing personal builds (actually, I'd like to see Ruben 
copy Ozkan's excellent README summary available on the sezero SF download pages)
4) automated "official" build recipe based upon Ruben's 
https://github.com/rubenvb/MinGW-w64-build-scripts The two official automated 
builds (x86, x86_64) should be able to be built by _anyone_ using (at a 
minimum) a recent Ubuntu system or Ubuntu running under a VM on Windows. This 
isn't to say other platforms can't be used, but the baseline is Ubuntu 
(Server?). Even though we all know Arch is the One True Distro, it's probably 
too edgy for use as the baseline build platform.

FWIW, ~6 months ago I dug through Ruben's and was impressed with the potential 
for using as the build recipes for semi-automated "official builds." The two 
concerns I had then were (a) configuration setting, and (b) automated repo 
source downloads/updates as part of the build process.

By "configuration setting" I mean, easy declarative configuration setting like:

  https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/blob/master/config/devkit.rb#L27-65
  
https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/blob/master/config/compilers/mingw64.rb#L40-73

Of course it would use shell coding, not Ruby, but you get the point. 

I've recently cloned Ruben's github repo and had hoped to make time to submit 
code specifics, but we all know how that story often unfolds.

This email is long enough, but I'd like to hear if you think the idea has legs 
and what needs to be morphed. Specifically, what are the few specific TODOs and 
who (other than the overworked project committers) are able to take ownership 
of the tasks.

Regardless, I feel strongly about four things:

1) This project needs regular, high-quality automated "vanilla" binary 32 and 
64bit mingw builds in addition to the personal builds.
2) This project needs high-quality wiki build instructions for other platforms.
3) The bulk of setting up and maintaining any new automated build process needs 
to _not_ fall primarily on Kai, Jon Y, or Nightstrike by default. Of course 
they'll be involved, but the bulk of the work should be done by interested 
contributors.
4) Any new automated build process must be fairly easy to perform, and generic 
enough to be easily transferred to a new maintainer.

Thoughts?

Jon

---
Fail fast. Fail often. Fail publicly. Learn. Adapt. Repeat.
http://thecodeshop.github.com | http://jonforums.github.com/
twitter: @jonforums

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