[liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: Pre-built Windows binaries

  • From: "Arend Arends" <mada73bg@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2015 10:12:12 +0200

Hello Davy,

You are probably aware that to update LibLouis for an existing application the update must be "compatible". This depends on how the application uses LibLouis.
First the binaries must be compatible (use the same definitions for the exported functions). The new version of Michael Gray for UEB is not compatible with existing versions.
Second the tables must be compatible. Some applications might use the tables in a certain way, for instance maintain a private list of tables and table names.
Updating is generally at your own risk unless in cooperation with the application provider.

Arend Arends

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- From: Davy Kager
Sent: Monday, September 7, 2015 9:48 AM
To: 'liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: Pre-built Windows binaries

LibLouis itself is not an end user tool and in my mind its really for the end user application developers to create a suitable binary distribution.

Playing the devil's advocate here, but one notable exception I can think of is screen reader software. I heard that Freedom Scientific is showing some interest in liblouis (huge congrats to Bert and Christian if so). In these long-life products it is desirable for the user to be able to update the liblouis binaries independently of the encompassing application. I'm not sure about the liblouis license, but the LGPL actually requires that this be possible.

As a developer I also want to use the Windows tools, and thus the shared library. I'd like to develop the Dutch tables on Windows, but I don't necessarily want to install a toolchain on there. So issue #112 has my vote.

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: liblouis-liblouisxml-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:liblouis-liblouisxml-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] Namens Michael Whapples
Verzonden: vrijdag 4 september 2015 12:25
Aan: liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Onderwerp: [liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: Pre-built Windows binaries

I am not really sure whether it would be useful for MacOSX considering certain things in the build process and what one gets out.

The main thing which comes to my mind is that the default table path gets hard coded into liblouis by the compile process, so if I were to compile liblouis on my system to have a table path of /Users/mwhapples/my_tables, then my build of liblouis is almost certainly not going to work on anyone elses system.

I think something similar happens with the command line tools of liblouis and where they look for the liblouis library.

OK, I could use some fairly generic type path like /usr/share/liblouis/tables which installing the binary build could create and place the tables in, but that in itself is a bit wrong on the Mac as it would require an installer rather than distributing an appbundle and would mean writing files into system directories.

LibLouis itself is not an end user tool and in my mind its really for the end user application developers to create a suitable binary distribution. As an example my JLouis java bindings for LibLouis does a certain amount of work to allow the Java application to set the table path (and if they are not I could get the JLouis bindings to default the path to somewhere relative to the JLouis JAR should the application not set a table path). This is something which the command line tools of LibLouis do not do and so lower their suitability for portable redistribution in binary form.

It is worth noting that I seem to remember there being special code in LibLouis which makes the table path relative for Windows binaries. May be this should also be the case for MacOSX. If that were done then it would be more suitable for binary distribution.

Michael Whapples

On 03/09/2015 17:15, Gregory Kearney wrote:
Could we also please offer the same thing for MacOS as well? It is almost impossible to build LibLouisutdml on that platform and it is what I really need.


Commonwealth Braille & Talking Book Cooperative Greg Kearney, General
Manager #320, 185-911 Yates Street Victoria, BC V8V 4Y9 CANADA
Email: info@xxxxxxxxx

U.S. Address
21908 Almaden Av.
Cupertino, CA 95014
UNITED STATES
Email: gkearney@xxxxxxxxx




On Sep 3, 2015, at 8:42 AM, Arend Arends <mada73bg@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Christian,

I have so far downloaded several versions of the mingw32msvc versions, but not the latest version. I have studied the contents, but after all I most of the time used the version that I compiled myself with MSVC.
One reason is that I need that version to build LibLouisutdml. Another reason is that I was not sure about the result. When I compile with MSVC I need to make some changes.
It is not quite clear whether the mingw32 version compiles for 16 or 32 bits characters input/output. I assume 16 bits because of the definition in liblouis.h:
#define widechar unsigned short int

Further there is no lib file included, which is necessary for linking the dll.

I normally do not use the tools because I am generally not involved in producing tables. I hate to use command line tools. It would probably be better if I had a set of batch files available so I do not have to do a lot of typing before I can start running the tools (this goes also for the compilation process).

Ideally I would like to get compiled versions for both liblouis and liblouisutdml with the necessary header files and lib files.
Is the current compiled version useful? Yes it still is, if one has problems with doing the compilation oneself or for comparison.

I would like to dive into the matter of making these things more automatic, but thusfar I lacked the time or energy. It would also require some knowledge of the other build systems.

Best regards,

Arend Arends

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- From: Christian Egli
Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2015 4:55 PM
To: liblouis-liblouisxml
Subject: [liblouis-liblouisxml] Pre-built Windows binaries

Hi all

For the last few releases I not only packed up a tar ball of the
source code, but I also built a zip file containing a dll and some
exe files of the tools using mingw.

Now I changed machines and my mingw infrastructure has changed and I
only seem to be able to build 64bit versions. That is what I uploaded
for the 2.6.4 release. But since I do not use Windows I have no way
of testing these binaries.

My question hence: is anyone even using these binaries and are they
useful? If yes then I'm looking for a way to off-load this job. Maybe
someone trusted in the community could take over this job or help me
set up some automation that could build the binaries automatically.

Thanks
Christian

--
Christian Egli
Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled
Grubenstrasse 12, CH-8045 Zürich, Switzerland


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