On 2006-11-27 12:12+0100 Werner Smekal wrote: > Hi, > >> >> I'm unhappy about requiring python (or anything else non-standard) for >> running the tests. This adds another significant dependency to the build >> process. We're already asking users to install a fair bit. I guess this >> is particularly an issue for windows users. > > Yes, windows user need to spend quite a time to have everything setup. > That's the reason why I thought we should provide a binary package for > Windows with libraries for MinGW and Visual C++ 6.0 (which can be used > for all other Visual C++ as well, I think). Together with the headers > and data files. This is actually all you need for c/c++ development on > Windows. > > Apart from that, it may be the smartest than to write Windows batch > files or jim/tcl files. From the jim website I think it should be no > problem that jim compiles on most compilers - I'll write a cmake file > and test it on various Windows compilers.
Hmm... It's interesting how my comment about a parallel windows scripting system for ctest has sparked so much interest. A consensus seems to have formed for building jim/tcl as part of PLplot and making jim scripts with the same functionality as plplot-test.sh and the various test*.sh scripts, but I have two reservations about this solution. 1) It adds parallel maintenance that Werner and Arjen have to apply to the jim scripts any time there is a change to plplot-test.sh and the other test*.sh scripts. This is all fairly trivial stuff (adding new examples, finding better ways to configure the tests), but there is a fair amount of churn, and it will be irritating to keep the two systems in sync. 2) There is also a maintenance burden for jim itself. Werner and Arjen have to keep track of new jim releases, make judgement calls about the stability of those releases, and decide when to deploy them into the PLplot code base. The first of these reservations also applies to all other parallel scripting systems (with python, perl, or whatever) which is why my opinion _now_ is we should reject all of them. I only brought up the idea of parallel scripts originally because I was under the impression no bash solutions were available for windows, but it appears that such solutions exist. In fact, Werner was able to get all but the java ctests passed with the windows bash solution he found, and I doubt a solution is far away in that case. It appears the only downside to the windows bash solution is our windows developers and users will need to independently install bash if they want to use ctest and/or the install-tree plplot-test.sh tests. I doubt installing a windows bash is going to be a difficult burden for Arjen or any other windows developer that wants to contribute to PLplot since Werner has already been successful at this, and almost by definition our developers are good at installing PLplot dependencies. That leaves only the question of our users. To make life easier for them, I think we should put together a test to look for bash. If that test fails we should give the appropriate warning message, force BUILD_TEST to OFF, and not configure or install plplot-test.sh and the test*.sh scripts. Also, Werner should expand our wiki a bit more giving a reference to windows bash and perhaps a sentence or two about how to install it if that is not obvious. With those changes it should be straightforward for our windows users to install bash, but if they choose not to do so, all that will happen is they will receive a CMake warning and the ctest functionality will be missing and install tree tests not available. So it will be exactly like any other component of PLplot. If you want a particular PLplot component you have to pay the price of installing the relevant software. In sum, I have given my reasons why I prefer a uniform bash solution for all platforms (especially since it apparently already works on bare windows except for one minor Java issue). However, if the windows developers still prefer the jim/tcl alternative (and are willing to develop it and more importantly maintain it), I will go along since windows developers know a lot more about windows than I do. :-) Alan __________________________ Alan W. Irwin Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software package (plplot.org); the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). __________________________ Linux-powered Science __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
