kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/15/2010 09:26 AM, Martijn Kuipers wrote:
> On Oct 15, 2010, at 15:04 PM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
>
>   
>> FYI,
>>
>> Kicad does not use expat directly.  wxWidgets does.  wxWidgets includes
>> expat in its source tree.
>>     
> Well wxWidgets includes wxexpat in its source tree, not exactly expat per se.
>
>   
>> So one can argue that this is a discussion for the wxWidgets build
>> environment, and if it is built properly, then Kicad can simply use
>> wxWidgets, which should be responsible for the libraries that it needs.
>>     
> I wondered about that too. In order to compile wx I use the --enable-monolithic option, but then it does not make builtin support for zlib, expat and perhaps some others (at least on OSX). Do you consider this a wxWidgets error?
>
> Another option is to make a multi-lib build and make kicad responsible for taking in all libs, but that requires more cmake surgery.
>
>   
>> Maybe an equally valid solution is to submit a patch to the wxWidgets
>> team, or to your distro team, or whatever.
>>     
> I just wanted Kicad to tell me beforehand (before building) that my dependencies are not in order. I don't think Kicad should tell me whom I should blaim for this.
>
>   
>> It may not be the best solution, but before I identify the best
>> solution, I usually try and find more than one.
>>     
> I weighted the odds and thought that adding the expat one is reasonable, but if you prefer a multilib build then I will prepare the OR and begin the surgary. 
>   

If I were to participate in appraising the relative merits of
alternative solutions, I would think that anything that is OSX specific
should be pushed back to OSX folks, anything that is wxWidgets specific
should be pushed back to wxWidgets, or maintained as a separate patch to
wxWidgets, etc.

If we work long enough on the cmake scripts, eventually we will not be
able to read them.

But I am not participating in this.  I don't have the pain you do.  I am
using Ubuntu Lucid, without issue.


Even though I was instrumental in crafting the first CMake buid of Kicad
on Windows, I haven't has windows on my machine for at least 4 years,
and stopped using it about 9 years ago.  So I am not currently qualified
to make the judgement. 

But I just suggest that weight be given to putting blame where blame
belongs.   Pros and cons are weighed according to their importance, and
others will have different weights.

Expat is not a fixture in Kicad.  We might decide to switch to another
XML library in the future.


Dick