[sldev] Better support for the Open Source community

Matthew Dowd matthew.dowd at hotmail.co.uk
Tue Nov 13 12:46:43 PST 2007


I've not been able to compile the viewer since 1.18.3.

1.18.4 introduced a few new library dependencies not included in the library download - in particular c-ares. Whilst I've managed to hunt this component down, and at least get through the compilation stage - so far I've not managed to get a compiled version of c-ares which doesn't cause errors at the link stage (and my plea for help on this list didn't seem to get a response unless I missed an e-mail).

1.18.5 (which is in subversion) introduced another dependency - namely the Logitech LCD SDK. Again, it took some time to track this down, and again, although I finally got the source code for the LCD SDK and managed to get through the compilation, getting the right library compiled to get through the link step is again taking time to resolve.

And this has been the case with previous releases too, when the source code hasn't included a dependency.

Now, I'm sure given time, patience and perserverance, I'll eventually work out all the require dependencies and get a build working - but this seems to me to be a complete and unncessary waste of time and effort. Presumedly, LL has some internal process for documenting new library dependencies in the source code, so that if a LL developer introduces a new dependency the rest of LL doesn't have the pain that the external opensource community seems to have to go through! Could this information not be shared with the external community, rather than expecting the community to muddle through and redocument this itself?

If LL wants to take the OS community seriously (or if LL wants to be taken seriously by the OS community), it really does need to do something about the issues in just getting the publically available source smoothly through a build step!

Matthew


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