Thanks for your response. I will proceed with libsndfile, PortAudio,
PortMidi, and FLTK support only for the time being. This is NOT set in
stone and I will NOT commit anything without further discussion.

I hope your libsndfile contributions are in CVS - I will need them.

I share your concerns about autotools. They are meant to solve the problems
of configuring between different version of Linux, Unix, and Cygwin, but
they seem to share some of the same problems! 

Yet I don't know what else to do. There are OTHER cross-platform build
systems like CMake, but autotools DO know how to build shared libraries and
modules for dlopen on different platforms - not a small thing!

We also could go back to makefiles. The build system I'm working on does
encapsulate the logic of the build in a very clear way and it might be
possible to reproduce it within a single makefile that would not require
(much) hand customization.

In the meantime, let's see how well autotools work out.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: John ffitch jpff@cs.bath.ac.uk
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 20:16:11 +0000 (GMT)
To: csound-dev@eartha.mills.edu
Subject: [CSOUND-DEV:3938] Re: Csound 5


On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, gogins@pipeline.com wrote:

> I have made good progress towards a new build system for csound5, but I
> have a big question before I finish it and commit it.
> 
> Shall we use ONLY libsndfile for soundfiles, PortAudio for audio, PortMidi
> for MIDI, FLTK for windowing, and so on? Or must we keep the old drivers
> going also in order to support additional platforms?

I was going to ask a similar question.  I know Michael is in favour of 
libsndfile and talking to Richard Dobson last week he is rather so 
inclined.  I would really like a decision on this so i can complete the 
libsndfile stuff and feel I am not wasting what little time there is.  I 
have not really spent the time on the alternatives.  I have been very 
pleased with Erik de Castro Lupo's responses to my questions.

Portaudio and portmidi -- yes certainly

> 
> I need to know the answer to this soon, so please speak up! Lack of
> feedback may result in changes not to everyone's liking.

I would say yes unless someone can think of an objection
> 
> My preference is to keep Csound 5 simple, and support only the above
> solutions, with the possible addition of plugin drivers that can replace
> the default driver for certain uses or platforms. I think all the defaults
> suggested would work on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
> 

That was always the intent.

> But I know how to incorporate the older drivers - this is a question of
> simplicity, not a question of difficulty.
> 
> The new build system uses GNU autotools. It uses one configure.ac and one
> Makefile.am in the top-level directory - no recursive Makefiles. The
> configure.ac is based on John Ramsdell's version, which sets up
> conditionals for platforms, libraries, and drivers. The Makefile.am is
> completely from scratch and much simpler (and, I hope, easier to
> understand) than any of the existing build systems.
> 

I hope it actually works unlike the csound4 state at present :-)

==John ff


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