Re: Package system

[David Bateman]

Soren Hauberg wrote:

> > - extra/engine has libraries and headers that are needed by other 
> > programs.  They should be installed in /usr/include and /usr/lib or 
> > /usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib.
> >
> > - extra/mex and main/fixed have libraries and headers that need to be 
> > available for compiling other oct-files.  They should be installed 
> > along side the octave libraries and headers.
> >    
> The problem here is that not all users have the privileges to do this. We could 
> of course
> check this and tell the user if she doesn't have the needed privileges.
> This should be possible in the current setup, by providing
> 'pre_install.m', 'post_install.m', and 'on_uninstall.m'. These could
> also handle the installation of the files. However, this really isn't a
> very pretty solution (it's really a hack). Personaly, I don't think the
> package system should take extra care to make packages like this
> possible as I'm guessing there won't be many packages like this.
>  
Hi Soren,

The reason the fixed toolbox is like this is that cygwin/mingw resolves 
the symbols in a binary at link time. It is therefore impossible to have 
a library under cygwin/mingw that has unresolved symbols. Now imagine I 
have two oct-files that both rely on the same basic functionality, under 
systems other than cygwin/mingw the basic functionality can exist in one 
of these oct-files that will be the first to be called, and the other 
can use it. Under cygwin/mingw this is not possible and you're left with 
two choices. Either all of the oct-files can be built into a single file 
with linking to this single file or a both oct-files can link against a 
separate library containing the basic functionality. The first is 
easier, except under mingw with the lack of symbolic links this means 
that each oct-file is very large. However, the limitation of the first 
scheme is that it isn't extensible..

In the case of the fixed point type, I wanted to be able to write new 
oct-files for further functionality at will and so just for mingw/cygwin 
this split was necessary. Note that the split only exists in this case 
and not otherwise. Therefore the installation question is simplified to 
can you install the necessary dll's under windows, not a more generic 
question...

Regards
David


An oct-file is effectively a library and so if I won't to create an 
oct-file that depended on the fixed type it needed to have access to the 
a separate library

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David Bateman                                address@hidden
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