kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/13/2013 10:44 PM, Andrew Plumb wrote:
> 
> On 2013-11-13, at 10:11 AM, Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>> Hi Dick,
>>>
>>> Here's a least-invasive patch to get the boost component compiling on
>>> "APPLE" platform again:
>>>
>>> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~andrew-plumb/+junk/download_boost_apple_cmake/revision/4463?compare_revid=4459
>>>
>>> In theory, the CMakeModules/download_boost_apple.cmake file should
>>> copy over the original
>>> CMakeModules/download_boost.cmake and "just work" for all platforms,
>>> but I'm not in a
>>> position to test that theory at this time.
>>>
>>> Gotta pick my battles. :-)
>>>
>>> Andrew.
>>
>>
>> Andrew,
>>
>> I do not understand this change.  If we look at your
>>
>>   ExternaProject_Add(),
>>
>> It looks like you are only copying the headers, and that is
>> insufficient to qualify as an
>> acceptable patch.  You are just kicking the can down road, in fact not
>> even that, kicking
>> it sideways.
>>
>>
>> I will not commit this change, sorry.
>>
>>
>> Dick
> 
> Follow-up question time.  What's the motivation for telling
> CMakeLists.txt to explicitly build boost from scratch:
> 
> include( download_boost )
> 
> ...instead of trying something like
> 
> find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS date_time filesystem iostreams
> locale program_options regex system thread )

Andrew,

The long answer: there are three reasons.

1) Boost has a known bug in it's geometry library which requires patching.
2) The KiCad developers were spending way too much time helping Windows
developers with Boost build and install issues.
3) Many of the Linux distros Boost versions were lagging behind what we
needed.  In a perfect world, your solution is preferable.  Unfortunately
(or fortunately depending on your point of view) we don't live in a
perfect world so until the Boost geometry library is fixed, building and
installing Boost on Windows becomes less painful, and all the major
Linux distros package the latest version of Boost, we will continue to
build it as part of the the project.

The short answer: it's the best solution for the largest target of
developers at the moment.

Maybe this should be added to the FAQ on Launchpad.  I'm sure your not
the only person to wonder why we build Boost as part of the project.

Wayne

> 
> ...for existing installs, as is done for other dependencies like OpenGL,
> GLEW, Cairo, etc?
> 
> 
> KiCad builds fine when I reference the existing MacPorts boost 1.54.0
> install using the attached CMakeLists.txt patch, but I'm happy to modify
> the patch to be a simpler "if( APPLE )" conditional if it's likely to
> break others' Windows and Linux builds.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Andrew.
> 
> --
> 
> "The future is already here.  It's just not very evenly distributed" --
> William Gibson
> 
> Me: http://clothbot.com/wiki/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>