kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Michael Narigon <mnarigon@xxxxxxxxx>]

All,
I am actually pretty far along with this separation of build. Is there a recommended location I could post some files so you could see how I approached it? I basically expanded the kicad-install.sh script with additional steps. One of the main things I do is I work with completely clean setups in virtual machines. That lets me check for dependencies that the average user might not have installed. I am furthest along on OS X (I am working out how to build a signed, drag and drop package containing all of the new modular programs.) I have it working on Linux although I do not have the Debian and RPM installers running yet. I am furthest from finishing on Windows.

Michael

On Aug 16, 2014, at 3:11 PM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 8/16/2014 3:07 PM, Jason Whiteman wrote:
>> I'm not sure if I'm in the minority - but I have deferred work due to
>> build issues with the dependencies.  I'm capable of sorting this out
>> myself - but wasn't willing to invest the time beyond what I had already
>> invested in order to move forward.  Your decoupling will lead to more
>> burden on the developer for builds -- but perhaps the new structure will
>> eventually change the paradigm and allow for easier management of
>> platform-specific build requirements.
>> 
>> Thumbs up on any work to arrive at this goal.
> 
> That is one of the goals.  The current situation contains a bunch of
> platform specific checks which break on other platforms or cross builds.
> This in and of itself is just plain wrong and probably what you have
> been experiencing.  I know that it has been a thorn in my side for some
> time now.  Testing for platforms in build tools be it CMake, autoconf,
> scons, etc. is broken by design.  The general rule of thumb for
> configuration tools is test for features not platforms.  If you don't
> understand how to configure you platform to build KiCad, it is your
> responsibility as a developer to correct and should not be part of the
> build configuration of KiCad.  While I can sympathize with the plight of
> inexperienced developers, the only thing the KiCad build configuration
> should do is make sure you have the appropriate dependencies installed
> on your platform to build KiCad.
> 
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Jason
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Wayne Stambaugh
>> <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>> 
>>    One of the tasks that I have committed to working on in the KiCad road
>>    map is to clean up the current mess we have created by allowing
>>    dependency libraries to be built as part of the KiCad source build.  The
>>    only exception I see for the time being is Boost.  Although I am have my
>>    reservations on that as well.  Why you ask?  I've spent several days
>>    trying to get KiCad to build on Windows using MSYS2 as my build
>>    environment and mingw64 as my target environment.  Every single library
>>    dependency with the exception of our custom Boost and avhttp (which
>>    could easily be build and installed using CMake) are already packaged
>>    for me.  However, the current KiCad build insists on downloading and
>>    building some libraries from source that are already installed.  This is
>>    silly.  I can resolve the issues by passing all of the
>>    PACKAGE_ROOT_PATHs when I run CMake but that is silly as well since my
>>    build environment already points the correct path.
>> 
>>    Originally I intended to create a separate project to build the KiCad
>>    library dependencies but I have since changed my mind.  I do *not* think
>>    it is asking too much of developers to learn how to build and/or install
>>    libraries on their preferred platform.  If as a developer you must have
>>    this done for you automatically, I am going to please ask that *you*
>>    create a separate platform specific build tool such as the excellent
>>    kicad-winbuilder that Brian has created.  This will significantly
>>    simplify the KiCad CMake files and eliminate the situation I described
>>    above.  My preference and goal is that the KiCad CMake files be used to
>>    build KiCad, not library dependencies.
>> 
>>    Initially, I plan to remove the dependencies that do not require any
>>    patching to build which currently are avhttp, swig, cairo, libpng,
>>    pixman, pcre, pkgconfig, and glew.  Then I will remove the dependencies
>>    with platform specific patches which are openssl, wxwidgets and
>>    wxpython.  Then I will try to figure out what to do with the problem
>>    child that is Boost.  I would also suggest that all platform specific
>>    library dependency build patches be remove as well leaving only the
>>    Boost patches that are required for all platforms (except the context
>>    switching patches).
>> 
>>    My goal here is not to step on anyone's toes it is to get our build
>>    system under control so that I can build *KiCad* rather than figure out
>>    how to get the dependencies to build or not as the platform dictates.  I
>>    expect our code to be well designed and I don't think expecting the same
>>    from our build system design is out of line.  If any one has major
>>    objections then we will have to figure something out because I am not
>>    going to continue to spend valuable time fighting our build tools to get
>>    them to properly use the dependencies already installed on my platform.
>> 
>>    Wayne
>> 
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> 
> 
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