[Xapian-discuss] Re: Problem with bindings and MinGW

[franz.g at tin.it]

Hi Olly,

sincerely I forgot to consider that there are other platforms, like Mac
OS 9 and earlier, that may have different build systems and installation
layouts. So I only focused the setup.py script on UNIX (which is straightforward)
and Win32 (which requires some extra options).

The script could be probably avoided, however it can be helpful in providing
the compiler the necessary options to correctly compile for the destination
platform. And, regarding your question, yes: it can be used to produce "installers":
RPM on Linux, EXE on Windows and binary tarballs on other platforms. Of
course on Windows InnoSetup installers are nicer and can achieve the same
result.

I'm trying right now to learn as quick as possible how to use the Autoconf/Automake
tools in order to try to help in finding a solution to make the bindings
more portable (requiring MSYS along with MinGW on Win32 platforms). I'd
like to contribute, even though I think it will require some time.

Unfortunately I only use Python as a scripting language -- well, nowadays
I use it also for applications, almost abandoning C and C++ -- so I probably
will not be of much help for other bindings. Anyway I'll do my best to give
some help, if I can.

Cheers,

F.