On Friday, 29 January 2016 at 19:46:40 UTC, Johannes Pfau wrote:
Now on windows, things are more complicated. First of all, I
can't seem
to simply use "libs": ["foo"] as the linker won't find the C
import .lib file. Then apparently there's no way to add a
library search
path with the MSVC linker? So I have to use the full path:
"libs": [$PACKAGE_DIR\\path\\foo]. Without $PACKAGE_DIR paths
are
incorrect for applications using the library because of a dub
problem.
And then I'll have to use different import libraries and paths
for -m32,
-m64 and -m32mscoff.
Now you know my motivation for creating Derelict.
All this leads to the following questions:
* Should cairoD copy the DLLs for all applications using
cairoD? This
way simply adding a dependency will work. However, if users
want to
use a self compiled cairo DLL with fewer dependencies there's
no easy
way to disable the file copying?
* Should cairoD link in the .lib DLL import file? This might be
useful
even when not copying the DLLs. But if users want to link a
custom
import library that would be difficult. OTOH not copying DLLs
and/or
not linking the import library will make dub.json much more
complicated for simple applications, especially if these
applications
want to support -m32, -m32mscoff and -m64.
IMO, no to both of these (for now). Including all of these
dependencies is going to mean that all of your users, no matter
the platform, will pull the down with every new version of gtkd.
I recommend you provide all of the precompiled DLLs and import
libraries as a separate download and let the user do the
configuration needed to get it to link. Most Windows developers
are used to it. You can provide instructions for those who aren't.
Hopefully one day dub will have the ability to pull down library
dependencies on demand, or based on the current platform and
architecture by default, then this problem goes away.
* What's the best way to support all of -m32, -m32mscoff and
-m64? I've
got working import libraries and DLLs for all configurations,
but how
to support this in dub.json? I think the best way would be to
have
-ms32coff as a special architecture or flag for dub, but I
can't seem
to find any documentation about that. -m64 can be detected by
x86_64
in platforms, but how to detect -m32 vs -m32mscoff?
Alternatively I could simply let users choose the
configurations
manually. But adding dflags: ["-m32mscoff"] does not build the
Derelict dependencies with the m32mscoff flag so linking will
fail...
DFLAGS="-m32mscoff" doesn't work with dub test as the dub test
command ignores the DFLAGS variable. I'd have to check
whether it
works for applications, but then there's still no way to use
the
correct cairo import library in cairoDs dub.json....
There's an issue for this at [1]. Until support for -m32mscoff is
baked in, distributing any libraries with a dub project will be
problematic.
