Re: Windows Build System

I (Curtis Faith) previously wrote:
> > The Visual C++ Workspaces and Projects files are actually
> > text files that have a defined format. I don't think the format is 
> > published but it looks pretty easy to figure out.

Hannu Krosing replied:
> will probably change between releases

Even if the format changes, the environment always has a converter that
updates the project and workspace files to the new format. In other
words, Visual C++ 6.0 reads 5.0 projects, 7.0 reads 6.0, etc.

The format is mostly a bunch of options specifications (which wouldn't
get touched) followed by a set of named groups of source files. Even if
the overall format changes, it will be much more likely to change in the
specifications rather than the way lists of source file formats are
specified.

A conversion tool, call it BuildWindowsProjectFile, would only need to:

1) Read in the template file (containing all the options specifications
and Visual C++ speficic stuff, debug and release target options,
libraries to link in, etc.) This part might change with new versions of
the IDE and would be manually created by someone with Visual C++
experience.

2) Read in the postgreSQL group/directory map, or alternately just
mirror the groups with the directories.

3) Output the files from the PostgreSQL directories in the appropriate
grouping according to the project format into the appropriate space in
the template.

An excerpt of the format follows:

# Begin Group "Access"
# Begin Group "Common"
# PROP Default_Filter "cpp;c;cxx"
# Begin Source File

SOURCE=.\access\common\heaptuple.c
# End Source File
# Begin Source File

SOURCE=.access\common\indextuple.c
# End Source File

... other files in access\common go here
# End Group

# Begin Group "Index"

# PROP Default_Filter "cpp;c;cxx"
# Begin Source File

SOURCE=.\access\index\genam.c
# End Source File
# Begin Source File

SOURCE=.access\index\indexam.c
# End Source File

... other files in access\index go here
# End Group

# End Group


As you can see, this is a really simple format, and the direct
folder/group mapping to PostgreSQL directory is pretty natural and
probably the way to go.

Using the approach I outline, it should be possible to have the Unix
make system automatically run the BuildWindowsProjectFile tool whenever
any makefile changes so the Windows projects would stay up to date
without additional work for Unix developers.

Hannu Krosing also wrote:
> (also I dont think you can easily compile C source on a
> C# compiler) ;/

I don't think it makes much sense target a compiler that won't compile
the source, therefore, if what you say is true, we shouldn't bother with
targeting C#.

- Curtis