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:
> 
> > --- 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.
> 
> Well, that's just as true for the Unix builds as well, except that
> the dependencies are more common there.
> 
> > Many people who distribute the dlls dont put the source in the same
> > place as required by the GPL section 3. 
> 
> If you know of such circumstances, please let me know (privately)
> and I'll contact them. 

I have not looked in a while. But the gpl specifically states in the
faq, to put all the sources, not just patches, and all the sources for
dependancies (non-standard lib), and all the build settings in the same
places as the binaries. This was not be done for any of the
distributions of the windows ports, there was always something missing.
Or even just dependancies on the dlls and the libs, but not the
sources. 

Some people did not even care to use the sources of the dlls, but build
a dependancy on the dll and just distributed a link to that. 

this is a house of cards, and is sure to fall, leaving the end user in
a DLL hell and stressed out.

>  
> [...]
>  
> > >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.
> 
> The Debian GTK+ package maintainers are free to include patches;
> we include a couple of patches in the Red Hat GTK+ package.
> If the patches they use are of general interest, I'm quite
> confident that they know it is in their best interest to send
> them upstream.

I will send all patches upstream when they all work

>  
> [...]
> 
> > > 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"
> 
> OK, I think this is a reasonable use of the word port. However, it
> doesn't correspond to the way we use it in the GTK+ world. 
> Ports of GTK+ are code additions to make it possible to compile GTK+
> with new windowing systems.
> 
> You "just" have a build system :-)

fine.


> 
> Let me just lay down a ground rule here -- this is my personal
> opinion, but I don't think any of the GTK+ team will disagree:
> 
>  - We take LGPL compliance seriously. If someone is distributing
>    binaries of an LGPL library, they typically have an obligation 
>    to provide the sources as well. If someone sees problems
>    in this area with respect to libraries maintained by the
>    GTK+ team, please contact the GTK+ team privately. 
>    (Mail me, or gtkdev gtk org)

The letter of the law is that you have to include sources for all the
non-standard libs needed, That includes all the dependancies for gtk.

I am sorry, but those are the rules, and no where else have they been
so important as in the windows ports of the gnome libs. That is why I
have taken apon myself to fix this problem and to create a new build
system that fixes this problem.

mike

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

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