Building Win32 Apps

Now C/C++ is not my native language, and especially not Win32 stuff. But it seems like every open source Win32 app is hard as crap to build. Maybe it's just me and not being used to it, but when I grab Linux apps, it's just ./configure; make. When I grab Win32 ones, it's always "OK now where's that 223M DirectX SDK ... Oh yeah, now what parameters do I have to configure properly ... Oh, I'm missing an SDK still". Is this just me? Does it get easier the more you do it? Or is this just bad source deployments?

Actually, props to VLC which was pretty easy to build (at least they had very clear step-by-step instructions on exactly what you needed to download/install).

Does it get easier the more you do it? Or is this just bad source deployments?

No, it's genuinely hard; it's scarcely easier setting up a new build machine here for the likes of RMM or Emplode. There just isn't an integrated system for getting hold of this stuff, not even at the bare-metal "configure; make" level, let alone the apt-get or RPM level with all the dependencies sorted out. These SDKs don't install to well-known locations, and there isn't even a well-known registry location where they can say they've been installed (so you have to spend ages adding all these directories to Visual Studio's search paths -- now that surely shouldn't be my job). It's all just pants.

Peter

I do most of my development in Delphi (which means Pascal, not C/C++), and I don't have many problems. Not that I don't have to use third party packages, SDKs and the like, but I suppose I'm just used to the paradigm. Also, generally some extra work has to be done to make anything that isn’t totally mainstream Win32 work in Delphi, but either I can find someone who’s already done it and done it well, or I can do it myself (which I prefer being a code-control freak and all). Either way, though, I’ve never felt inhibited by external libraries, as the only time I ever need them (in Delphi) is when I’m trying to solve a very specific problem.

I don’t have much experience with the M$ environment, so I couldn’t possibly comment on that.

I was really hoping for "you're just stupid" so at least there was room for improvement ... That's really a shame.

I was really hoping for "you're just stupid" so at least there was room for improvement ... That's really a shame.

Visual Studio.NET makes it a lot easier, mainly because it comes with all the SDKs that you could possibly need.

The flip side is true as well, though -- it's a total PITA trying to get Linux source code to build under Windows.

And, frankly, most open source software isn't the best example of Win32 code available -- a lot of it is either dross, or barely ported back from a Linux version (open source being a cultural anathema to Windows programmers).

I get the impression, not being a Windows programmer, but having played with Visual Studio a few times, that it would be difficult to share source code what with all the embedded information. Is there some way to export everything needed in one big archive?

Bitt.. you're looking a little red today. How long have you had this condition?

Since the board came back up. I'm hoping some penicillin will clear it up.

it would be difficult to share source code what with all the embedded information

It is still just files on the hard drive, most of them plain text. No more difficult than sharing a set of files built with make and gcc.

With VS.Net they have taken a further step forward in this regard, because the files that define how the project hangs together (the project file and the solution file for grouping projects) are XML.

With .Net you could also take a project coded with VS.Net and build it without having access to the VS.Net enviroment, because the compilers for VB.Net, C# and Javascript.Net all come as part of the .Net SDK, which is all "freely" downloadable.

That would require a fair bit of work on someone's part to come up with scripts to build the project though. I wouldn't surprise me if someone hadn't already knocked up a tool to automate this though, as all the info you need to build the project is in the project and solution files.

There is also no reason why you could take the files from a typical VS.Net project and build them on mono (the Linux version of .Net) as long as it only used the bits of the framework that mono has implemented so far.

Of course with configure on Unix you have more flexiblity because you can target more than one build enviroment, but that is because a bunch of people have worked very hard for years to achieve it. Microsoft have never had the inclination to worry about things like that (or even the need to).

you could try some "Red Be Gone"
im sure theres better stuff, but thats the first google hit. i apologize for the tremendous helping of corn.

Nice new avatar, there!

Nice new avatar, there!

thank you. my roommate says shes ugly.
i happen to be rather fond of the creation