packaging Free Software on Windows: Re: Microsoft CoApp

[Bill Hoffman]

Pau Garcia i Quiles wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> According to Garrett (the MS guy) on IRC, CoApp is going to use an
> approach similar to ExternalProject_Add from CMake. He is going to use
> some tools he already has ( http://gstoolkit.codeplex.com ) because he
> says CMake is limited in that regard.
> 
His approach is actually a bit different.   He has a program that 
watches a build happen with nmake, and captures all of the steps.  It 
then generates XML that describes the build.  This xml is then 
translated by another program into .vcxproj files and built with 
MSBuild.   I talked to Garrett about modifying the converter to create 
CMake files instead.  I argued that this would be much more likely to be 
adopted upstream by the projects.  And if adopted upstream, would avoid 
the need for a shallow fork of the project by CoApp.   He agreed that 
that would be a good final goal.
> Actually, Garrett told me you were at Microsoft campus that very day
> and you two were goint to talk. How did it go?
> 
It went well.  I only talked with Garrett for an hour or so as we had 
other things going on a MS.   However, I felt the timing was pretty 
incredible, and was glad I was there.   I have posted the list of 
packages Patrick gave me to the CoApp list.   I think in the short term 
I would like to see CMake supported by CoApp if the project already has 
CMake files.   In the long term I would like to have the generator 
create CMake files.  That would be a cool tool to have anyway...


-Bill