X-Recipient:	archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com
X-SWARE-Spam-Status:	No, hits=-1.7 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,KHOP_THREADED,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_NO,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_YE,RCVD_IN_SORBS_WEB,SPF_HELO_PASS,TW_YG
X-Spam-Check-By:	sourceware.org
From:	"James Johnston" <JamesJ AT motionview3d DOT com>
To:	<cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
References:	<5011587F DOT 1000304 AT gmail DOT com> <50116934 DOT 6010002 AT dancol DOT org> <CE9C056E12502146A72FD81290379E9A43640586 AT ENFIRHMBX1 DOT datcon DOT co DOT uk> <50118958 DOT 3080909 AT dancol DOT org> <CE9C056E12502146A72FD81290379E9A43640814 AT ENFIRHMBX1 DOT datcon DOT co DOT uk>
In-Reply-To:	<CE9C056E12502146A72FD81290379E9A43640814@ENFIRHMBX1.datcon.co.uk>
Subject:	RE: automatically using pipe_byte for certain EXE's
Date:	Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:57:21 -0000
Message-ID:	<03f801cd6c08$21378fc0$63a6af40$@motionview3d.com>
MIME-Version:	1.0
X-IsSubscribed:	yes
Mailing-List:	contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Id:	<cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Subscribe:	<mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive:	<http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post:	<mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help:	<mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender:	cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To:	cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To:	mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 10:05
> Subject: RE: automatically using pipe_byte for certain EXE's
> 
> Daniel Colascione wrote:
> >Since message pipes cause problems _in practice_ and byte pipes (which
> >Cygwin lived with for many years) don't seem to cause problems _in
> >practice_, pipe_byte should go away and pipe_byte behavior should be
> >used unconditionally.
> 
> The folk who develop and release cygwin1.dll have made it clear that
they're
> not going to do this, however much you ask. And since they're the folk who
> do the development, it's their choice to make.
> 
> That DLL is released under the GPLv3. That means if you don't like what's
> being given to you for free, you're able to change it to do what you want
it to
> do.
> Or, if you don't have the ability to change it yourself, you can pay
someone to
> do it for you.
> 
> Don't complain when the free car someone just gave you has road tires
> when you need ones for dirt tracks. Don't keep complaining when the folk
> who just gave you that free car say they don't want to change your tires
for
> you. Either fix the tires yourself, or find a garage that'll take your
money and
> fit some off-road tires for you. 

Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the LibreOffice web site, since I
wasn't really believing that you actually *had* to use Cygwin to compile on
Windows.  I figured surely a project the size of LibreOffice wouldn't depend
on Cygwin, given its problems / lack of support of non-Cygwin programs,
unresolvable problems with fork, general dependency on undocumented Windows
data structures/behavior/APIs, paths that are not compatible with Windows
without using the cygpath utility, and now odd piping behavior.  Cygwin is a
fantastic tool to have around on my workstation for when I want a
POSIX/Linux-like environment for prototyping / general purpose use / use of
tools that don't have native Windows versions.  But now that I have learned
more about these issues with Cygwin, I probably wouldn't pick it for
something critical and I think the build environment is a critical thing -
maybe MSYS is more appropriate?  I figured surely the LibreOffice developers
would already have known all about this, but it turns out I was wrong and
they are using Cygwin...  Frankly I'm surprised there haven't been more
complaints about LibreOffice build issues up until now, given their heavy
reliance on non-Cygwin programs.  I'd be curious to look up what kind of
discussion may have transpired on the LibreOffice mailing last last few
months about build problems, but I'm too lazy.  (Or do they never update
their Cygwin to versions released in the last 9 months?)

I can certainly understand this user's frustration though... latest version
of LibreOffice is not building with latest version of Cygwin.  Dependency
incompatibilities because of version changes is one of those things that has
frustrated me in the past on Linux when trying to compile something from
source.  Maybe someone on the LibreOffice mailing list would be more willing
to investigate and fix Cygwin and/or its packages, since it is apparently
used in their core build process?  I would hope that, between the two
projects, there is a developer actually interested in making sure that
things generally build and work right ("smoke testing") and not leave it to
the end users / total beginner developers to the project.

</rant>

References:

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/BuildingOnWindowsWithCygwinAn
dMSVCExpress
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Windows_Build_Dependencies



--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple

- Raw text -