On 2009-07-24 08:49, Werner Smekal wrote: > Hi Hazen, > > > I'm actually "working" on this and already have something which provides > the basic PLplot package. Adding other stuff gets then more and more > "problematic". On one side is the size a problem. Putting QT and > wxWidgets library into the (same) package will likely lead to a really > *huge* download. In addition getting all cairo dependencies into the > package is not easy and makes a big download. Also the compiler problem > is not easy. In principle it's possible for both compilers to use a > plplot dll created by another compiler, except functions which return a > file handle (do we have any?). I'm also not sure if e.g. Visual C++ 2005 > is able to use dlls form Visual C++ 2008 and vice versa - this obviously > difficult to test if you only have one computer. So I would just provide > a package for MinGW (3.4.5) and Visual C++ 2008 - should be not so much > a problem if we using a batch file (see below).
Hello Werner, I think Visual C/C++ 6.0 (yes, ancient) leads to the most portable DLLs. This has to do with the run-time libraries that you need to supply/rely on. When it comes to bindings for other languages than C, difficulties arise: for Fortran, for instance, some compilers will use one form of name mangling or one particular calling convention, others will use alternatives. This is partly due to the fact that DLLs on Windows can use different calling conventions and not all compilers support all of them. I quite agree that we should not try to cover the full range of compilers and platforms: that will turn out to be a horrendous mess. > >> >> I think an official looking Windows installer might be a nice feature >> and I was looking at WiX (http://wix.sourceforge.net/) as one option. >> Any suggestions here? Or is what we are installing simple enough so that >> a .zip file is sufficient and we shouldn't bother with an installer? > > In no case I would use an installer. It just makes the package bigger > for no obvious advantage. I think the minimal requirement of a Windows > developer must be, that he is able to unzip a file. Zip file it must be, > since tar.gz packages are not common. > > What do you think? > I agree: a Windows installer may look attractive, but it is an extra burden with little nett advantage. (I will have to have a look at your batch files - will do so later) Regards, Arjen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
