Interest in mingw wxWidgets

[Max Jonathan Spaulding]

Hi,

I have a need for wxWidgets in a mingw app and will be building my own libs in 
a few weeks or next month sometime.

I was wondering 1, if a wxWidgets package for mingw would be useful to anyone 
else but me?

and 2, if anyone would be interested in being a co-maintainer for this package 
with me?

-Max
-- 
Max Jonathan Spaulding - MC2 Research, LLC
3658 Shoshone St. Denver, Co 80211
email: maxj(a)groff.net - phone: [phone]
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxjspaulding

[Jason Woofenden]

Max,

I have a similar story to yours. I went to cross compile my game, was
very very happy with how much time I saved by using the mingw32-*
packages. And needed two more libraries that were not packaged yet.

With practically no experince packaging, I was able to create the two
packages I needed in one sitting, by mostly copy-and-paste. (ie by
combining parts from the .spec file from the native version of the
package with a .spec file for a similar mingw32 package.) You can read
my post on this list from a few days ago if you want details.

Basically, Welcome! and I encourage you to give packaging a whirl :)
It gets everything in the right place for the cross-compiling stuff to
just work, and increases the chances that next time you need
mingw32-wxwidgets, it'll be there :)

Take care,  - Jason

P.S. I didn't end up having to patch the sources at all, just make a
couple .spec files. I don't know if that's usually the case or if I
got lucky.

[Kevin Kofler]

Jason Woofenden wrote:
>  With practically no experince packaging, I was able to create the
> two
>  packages I needed in one sitting, by mostly copy-and-paste. (ie by
>  combining parts from the .spec file from the native version of the
>  package with a .spec file for a similar mingw32 package.) You can read
>  my post on this list from a few days ago if you want details. 
It's not so easy for wxWidgets unless you're planning to use wxGTK rather
than the native W32 port. Fedora obviously doesn't ship a W32 wxWidgets as
a native Fedora package, only wxGTK.

        Kevin Kofler

[Max Jonathan Spaulding]

On Monday 22 June 2009 05:58:04 Kevin Kofler wrote:
>  Jason Woofenden wrote:
>  > With practically no experince packaging, I was able to create the two
>  > packages I needed in one sitting, by mostly copy-and-paste. (ie by
>  > combining parts from the .spec file from the native version of the
>  > package with a .spec file for a similar mingw32 package.) You can read
>  > my post on this list from a few days ago if you want details.
>
>  It's not so easy for wxWidgets unless you're planning to use wxGTK rather
>  than the native W32 port. Fedora obviously doesn't ship a W32 wxWidgets as
>  a native Fedora package, only wxGTK. 
Sorry, you lost me here.  I get that Fedora doesn't currently have a W32 
wxWidgets package, thats why I was asking if anyone had an interest in my 
making such a package.  What do you see as making it not so easy?  The wx 
sources cross build very nicely with mingw, I've been doing it for years with 
a hand built mingw.  The .spec for wxGTK with very few changes should work 
pretty much out the door with no patches or anything.

I'm new to packaging so maybe I am being naive?  But getting a cross built wx 
for win32 is no problem with mingw.

-Max

>          Kevin Kofler
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  fedora-mingw mailing list
>  fedora-mingw(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fedora-mingw 
-- 
Max Jonathan Spaulding - MC2 Research, LLC
3658 Shoshone St. Denver, Co 80211
email: maxj(a)groff.net - phone: [phone]
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxjspaulding

[Kevin Kofler]

Max Jonathan Spaulding wrote:
>  Sorry, you lost me here.  I get that Fedora doesn't currently
> have a W32
>  wxWidgets package, thats why I was asking if anyone had an interest in my
>  making such a package.  What do you see as making it not so easy?  The wx
>  sources cross build very nicely with mingw, I've been doing it for years
>  with a hand built mingw.  The .spec for wxGTK with very few changes should
>  work pretty much out the door with no patches or anything.
>  
>  I'm new to packaging so maybe I am being naive?  But getting a cross built
>  wx for win32 is no problem with mingw. 
I'm saying it'll need more changes compared to the native Fedora package
than most other libs because you'll be building a different wxWidgets
backend than for the native Fedora package, whereas for most other libs,
you just have to mingw-ize the specfile.

I haven't checked how many changes are needed exactly.

        Kevin Kofler

[Max Jonathan Spaulding]

On Monday 22 June 2009 08:27:11 Kevin Kofler wrote:
>  Max Jonathan Spaulding wrote:
>  > Sorry, you lost me here.  I get that Fedora doesn't currently have a W32
>  > wxWidgets package, thats why I was asking if anyone had an interest in my
>  > making such a package.  What do you see as making it not so easy?  The wx
>  > sources cross build very nicely with mingw, I've been doing it for years
>  > with a hand built mingw.  The .spec for wxGTK with very few changes
>  > should work pretty much out the door with no patches or anything.
>  >
>  > I'm new to packaging so maybe I am being naive?  But getting a cross
>  > built wx for win32 is no problem with mingw.
>
>  I'm saying it'll need more changes compared to the native Fedora package
>  than most other libs because you'll be building a different wxWidgets
>  backend than for the native Fedora package, whereas for most other libs,
>  you just have to mingw-ize the specfile. 
I'm sorry, not trying to be argumentative, but I really don't get the 
difference?  Getting wx to cross build entails setting a few environment 
variables and pointing it at the right compiler.  Its already setup to have 
multiple versions, builds installed on the same system.

I'm just not understanding, what is different between it and some other 
library?

I also am not understanding what you mean by "a different wxWidgets backend"?  
I no little of packaging or if fedora does anything "special" with wxWidgets, 
but wxWidgets itself was made for just this thing.  You cross build it by 
setting some env vars and making sure it finds the right compiler, you get a 
second set of include files that can go in their own build specific directory as 
well as the libraries.

What about wx makes it trickier than other libraries.  Again not being 
facetious, I suspect I must be missing something on the packaging side.  I 
downloaded the .spec's for FC10 and FC11 this weekend and it didn't look like 
that many changes, I am no expert on spec files (not even a novice) and I have 
no frame of reference for what other libraries needed but it seemed pretty 
straightforward.  I was going to take a stab at it later in the week.

-Max

>  I haven't checked how many changes are needed exactly.
>
>          Kevin Kofler
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  fedora-mingw mailing list
>  fedora-mingw(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fedora-mingw 
-- 
Max Jonathan Spaulding - MC2 Research, LLC
3658 Shoshone St. Denver, Co 80211
email: maxj(a)groff.net - phone: [phone]
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxjspaulding

[Kevin Kofler]

Max Jonathan Spaulding wrote:
>  I'm sorry, not trying to be argumentative, but I really don't
> get the
>  difference?  Getting wx to cross build entails setting a few environment
>  variables and pointing it at the right compiler.  Its already setup to
>  have multiple versions, builds installed on the same system.
>  
>  I'm just not understanding, what is different between it and some other
>  library? 
If you start from the native Fedora package, that package is a wxGTK
package, you need to change it to be a wxW32 package, which is a special
kind of adaptation most other libraries don't need. The Fedora package:
* is named wxGTK, as is its specfile (wxGTK.spec)
* BuildRequires gtk2-devel
* lists wxGTK files in its file lists
etc. All this needs to be changed in addition to the usual MinGW changes
(adding mingw32- to the package name, changing the BRs to the MinGW
version, tweaking the summary and description, using the MinGW macros where
appropriate).

>  I also am not understanding what you mean by "a different
> wxWidgets
>  backend"? 
wxGTK is a different backend than the W32 one.

        Kevin Kofler

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 01:58:04PM +0200, Kevin Kofler wrote:
>  Jason Woofenden wrote:
>  > With practically no experince packaging, I was able to create the two
>  > packages I needed in one sitting, by mostly copy-and-paste. (ie by
>  > combining parts from the .spec file from the native version of the
>  > package with a .spec file for a similar mingw32 package.) You can read
>  > my post on this list from a few days ago if you want details.
>  
>  It's not so easy for wxWidgets unless you're planning to use wxGTK rather
>  than the native W32 port. Fedora obviously doesn't ship a W32 wxWidgets as
>  a native Fedora package, only wxGTK. 
We should package the one with the native Windows widgets.

It requires us to do more, but is going to result in a better
developer experience.

The packaging work for this has already been done by someone I talked
to here at FUDCon.  I've asked him to post his work to this mailing
list.

Rich.

-- 
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[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 02:26:17PM -0600, Max Jonathan Spaulding wrote:
>  I have a need for wxWidgets in a mingw app and will be building my
>  own libs in a few weeks or next month sometime.
>
>  I was wondering 1, if a wxWidgets package for mingw would be useful
>  to anyone else but me? 
This is a fairly regular request, but so far no one has come forward
to package it yet.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MinGW/New_package

>  and 2, if anyone would be interested in being a co-maintainer for
>  this package with me? 
If you get through the package review, we will find people to be
co-maintainers.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Emerging Technologies, Red Hat  http://et.redhat.com/~rjones
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