pkgconfig under Windows ? Was: review FindBlueZ.cmake

[Alexander Neundorf]

On Sunday 02 October 2011, Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas wrote:
> On Sunday 02 October 2011, Patrick Spendrin wrote:
> > >>> On Saturday 01 October 2011, Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> > >>>> So, Windows developers: what's the current state of pkg-config under
> > > 
> > > Windows
> > > 
> > >>> ?
> > >>> 
> > >>>> Does it work ?
> 
> [...]
> 
> > >> I currently don't see any advantage of pkg-config, only disadvantages,
> > >> so there is no way to use that here.
> > 
> > Yes, I don't care about pkg-config because I think it can be fully
> > replaced by cmake scripts. If you call it boycott if somebody decides
> > that a tool simply is not what he wants - then so be it.
> > 
> > Implying that KDE on Windows should change its buildsystem simply
> > because pkg-config works for you makes no sense.
> 
> I'm not implying anything. This thread was created by the question asked by
> Alexander Neundorf, if pkg-config under Windows works or not. I say that it
> works for me, and I've given examples and answered a few technical
> questions about it. I'm not advocating to change your buildsystem.
> 
> You say that you don't want pkg-config because it is not pleasant for your
> taste. Ok, this is your decission, based on arbitrary reasons, but I accept
> it. Lets remember this discussion the next time Gnome ignores "our"
> contributions to FDO.

I consider pkg-config a hack to make makefile-style buildsystems work.
It hardcodes compiler flags, and it simply prints the information to stdout. 
The only way this is really useful is to feed this directly into a command 
line which invokes the compiler. But this bypasses the tool which created the 
makefile, but this tool should know which flags are passed to the compiler, 
e.g. to be able to care about include and link directories.

I don't see pkg-config as a contribution from Gnome to a Free Desktop 
standard, it is simply a tool which works quite well with makefiles, 
handwritten or produced by not too clever generators.

Alex