Re: new win32 port of GTK http://introspector.sourceforge.net/dia_win32.htm

[James Michael DuPont <mdupont777 yahoo com>]

--- Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com> wrote:
> 
> James Michael DuPont <mdupont777 yahoo com> writes:
> 
> > Dear GTK developers
> > I would like to introduce myself,
> > my name is Mike DuPont, and I have been working on a new port of
> GTK to
> > windows. 
> 
> I'm not sure I quite understand.
> 
> There can be only a single port of GTK+ to Win32. Anything else
> would be ridiculous. 
The current port is difficult to use. It is based on the idea of
downloading dlls from all over the net. There is no place that you can
get all the requirements for building GTk and *all* prerequisites.
Many people who distribute the dlls dont put the source in the same
place as required by the GPL section 3. 

> Crazy even.
the current setup is crazy.
I spend a long time in dll hell, trying to get the DIA setup to run. 
This problem is compounded by the fact that all the individual dlls are
build by different people, and none of them  are located in one spot.

> Only one set of code can be 
> included in the tree. 
And one set of patches for the cross compiler debian packages

>There has to be a single place for people
> to send patches. 
I will also be submitting my patches to you. In fact, most of the
patches are for the debian cross compiling, the patches to the
makefiles, etc. All patches will be submitted to the respective people,
but i can tell you that debian version of GTK is not the version that
you use, they apply a patch to it.

> There can't be multiple sets of incompatible
> GTK+ DLL's for Windows.

I am creating a static build, not a dll.

> There, of course, can be multiple people building binaries of that
> port, though there probably should be a single official set.

yes, and an official version of the sources, and a policy for the
distribution of dlls with sources as per GPL section 3.

> 
> What, exactly, do you mean by "port"?

a port is a when you setup a new way to compile a software in a new
environment. Ie : porting to a new os, new compiler or even porting
from a library to another. 

My port of the gtk and other tools is new because it sets a standard as
to how to get the source, how to configure, and how to build and
install a win32 app from inside linux : dpkg-buildpackage, dpkg -i

So I am creating a new distribution of GTK, using a new compiler, and
providing a new build environment. You can say that we have "ported" 10
packages to the "Debian GNU/Linux Mingw32 Cross Compiler build
Environment"

> 
> > The reason for this port is the mess with the dlls and the problems
> > with recompiling the entire package. While this may not be that
> > important to all of you, it is difficult to make broad changes to
> the
> > framework with the current setup.
> 
> What sort of "broad changes to the framework" are you considering?
like static compilation, or compiling it with a new compiler. 
I am working on a gcc patch, and to use on a source program properly I
need to recompile it,and all the modules again.

> 
> I'm am also concerned about the difficulty of compiling the Win32
> port of GTK+ currently, but any fixes (and the biggest one is
> simply documentation) absolutely need to be done in conjunction 
> with Tor.

Tor knows about my issues, and hans as well. 

Hans told me to go to hell after i asked him for the sources for the
dlls he is posting, according the GPL.
Tor is a lot nicer, and has been helpful.

I tell you, many people are not happy with the current state, and i
dont think that the current distributions of the gtk binarys are gpl
compliant. That is why it is so hard to get all the sources. If we were
to take the gpl by the letter, you need to provide all the sources of
all the non-standard dlls that you have, the entire toolchain as I am
doing it with the binaries. At least with my port, you will have a copy
of all the sources in a standard place, and a standard way to build
them.

Mike

=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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