[Bf-committers] New project, let's move on!

[Gilles J. Seguin]

Ton Roosendaal wrote:
> [...]
> I've had discussions with Kent Mein and Hans Lambermont
> on this topic yesterday, and they agree on the following:
> 
> - continue with autoconf as a secondary project, to be completed
>   somewhere in Q1 2003.
> 
> - fix the current makefiles/project files system in the very short term,
>   to get ready for actual Blender development.
> 
> Most important reasons for this are:
> 
> - Autoconf is a very complex system to implement, and only a few
>   people can do that work.
> - Autoconf experts for other platforms than Linux are hard to find
> - The old NaN Makefile system provides functionality that still
>   outperforms what we think is possible with autoconf in the short term
> - Both systems can easily live together without conflicts.
> 
> It's becoming a waste of time for all potential Blender developers
> out there to wait for autoconf.

We need more informations on what are they not happy with.

Makefiles are working, if you can fix the link

> [...]
> Efforts to get the current makefiles/project files working should
> be as limited and simple as possible;

They work.
Needs informations on what to fix

> just getting the current code compiled and having a Blender
> running with it.

$ cd blender
$ make
$ cd obj/system-manu-os/blender[creator|player|publisher|static]

waiting for bugs and fix added to the christmas-fixme file

> Even when that's without player or plugin.
> Associated with this work is some docs on how to do it, and
> which OS/tool versions (releases) are required minimum for it.

> The document as already committed by Micheal Selten
> (docs/building_blender.html) is an excellent start for it.
> 
> I would like to appoint a few 'moderators' for this stage, for each OS
> (or Blender version). The moderator will be able to provide guidlines,
> and can accept/reject code submissions from others.
> 
> MacOSX: Stefan Gartner (sgefant)
> Sun Solaris: Kent Mein (sirdude)
> Linux: Frederick Lee (phaethon)
> IRIX: John Walton (JWalton)
> FreeBSD: Hans Lambermont
> Windows: Maarten Gribnau (or Simon Clitherow, aphex, please let me know)
> 
> The people above: please let me know if you can agree with it.
> And if so, communicate about what has to be done,
> when it will be done, and who will do it!

Adding more finish to the make process
- need a top source Makefile file
- do not build debug libraries by default in blender/intern
  will require command line "make debug"
- stop recompiling source files or archive libraries that are not
   affected by changes
- add more facilities to the make process
  phase 1: check if necessary links that are provided by user 
           at least exist. That is in source/nan_definitions.mk
           That is, make will succeed if no incompatibilities
  phase 2: resolve links for libraries and headers in well known place.
           You need a sustaining guys for your platform/distribution.
           That is, I have a standard system/distribution with all
           requirement install, please build the thing or tell me
           what is missing.

> Can we target this before Christmas? I just *love* Christmas deadlines! :-)