RE: MSVC libraries (was: xterm crashes)

["Suhaib Siddiqi" <ssiddiqi at inspirepharm dot com>]

> At 17:32 20-07-2000 -0400, Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:
> >You cannot link libX11.a with VC++.  You can link only Cygwin compiled
> >code using gcc which comes with Cygwin to libX11.a.
> >
> >For MSVC there is http://win32-xfree.sourceforge.net
> >but that project is not any more active.  John Fortin
> >was interested in it but he left and others who promised
> >to provide development support disappeared.  I do not have enough
> >brain and time to sponsor and spear-head multiple projects.
> >Therefore I assume http://win32-xfree.sourceforge.net is
> >almost dead and might disappear.  You might grab the
> >libraries before from there before they vanish. Those
> >X11 librareis should link with VC++.
>
> I need MSVC libraries (only x11.dll and xext.dll) to get a cookie from
> XFree.  My Remote Shell Extension works with any X Server, so it cannot
> depend on Cygwin. How much difference is there on the library
> side between
> the MSVC/mingw and the Cygwin versions?


There are some basic differences.  The libraries in MSVC compiled suite do
not
have all the extensions built-in, for example LBX, VIDEXT and GL rendering
etc.
Without LBX  the X can have problems when connecting accross firewalls.

>Is it more than the makefiles?
> Would it be possible for Cygwin-xfree to include client libraries
> for MSVC?

No much more.  The libraries in Cygwin/XFree have all the features
you find on a UNIX workstations, therefore more complete.  The libraries
compiled with MSVC have only basics, because a lot of extensions cannot
be compiled using MSVC, unless they are re-written from scratch.

>
> Perhaps I am better off distibuting the X libraries myself. But then I'd
> like to be able to point to a place to get the source (is it still under
> the xfree license? You talked about GPL'ing the cygwin fixes), while not
> having to maintain that myself.

No, none of the XFree code, itself, is under GPL.  It is under XFree86.inc
license,
but when you link to CYgwin Net-Release you infect the binaries with GPL and
that means
for Cygwin Net_release compiled binaries you must maintain code of x as well
as anyother application.

The MSVC compiled X code (binaries) falls under X Consortium License, that
mens you need not
to maintain, disclose code you used for binaries.  However, I will not be
maintaining
or updating the code for MSVC available at
http://win32-xfree.sourceforge.net
therefore anyone (and you too) wants to have access to X11 code for MSVC,
you must
get it from there.  It will disappear after sometimes, when SourceForge
folks notice
no activity for six months.

Suhaib

>
>
> Gunnar
>
>
>