lester@... wrote:

>
> > As this is a support list for InterBase and its children, this thread appears to be well off-topic for this list.
> >
> > Please post your problem to a more appropriate forum, e.g delphi@....
>
> It's a little off-topic, but it has come about because of Interbase. When will we be able to compile Firebird? I do
> not intend putting VC6 onto my machine, and yet I am told that I need it to do my own build.
>
> The fix to this seems to be to eliminate VC6 from the Firebird build requirements? Then a few more of us may be able
> to contribute directly.
>

It is extremely unlikely that the MSVC requirement will disappear in the near
future, for several reasons.

1/ It is the standard compiler for Win32. Even projects such as Apache use MSVC
to for their Windows builds.

2/ Unless you understand the implications of different compiler optimisations it
is certain that building with another compiler will produce different code. We
are a long way from having the resources to certify builds against different
compilers.

3/ No-one has yet (to my knowledge) got a successful build using the Borland C
Compiler. Despite the tantalising references that imply building is possible
with it, a lot of work is required to tweak the Make files and I think it is
probably a waste of time.

4/ Of the two GNU C compiler environments available Cygwin is inappropriate, for
reasons I do not fully understand. (Something to do with Posix.) This leaves us
with MinGW. We are waiting for someone to take up the challenge here.
Unfortunately, the work involved is huge. Despite using gcc to compile on Linux
and other *nix platforms the conditional code for the Windows build is wholly
written against the assumption that MSVC is the compiler. I do not see many
relishing the opportunity to add yet another load of conditional defines to an
already rickety build environment.

5/ Even if you achieve the politically correct goal of building with gcc how are
you going to debug the code? With gdb?


The issue in my opinion is not to dump MSVC but how to make the build work more
easily with it. I've just completed writing a batch file which removes the
requirement for installing Cygwin to setup a build on Windows. The next step
will be to remove the dependancy upon Borland Make. Windows is by far the most
comfortable environment to build and debug the source code. MSVC is the only
tool available to do it in. I'm not wild about it, but that is the reality.


Paul
--

Paul Reeves
http://www.ibphoenix.com
taking InterBase further