On 12 Apr 2008 at 12:00, ntg-context-request@ntg.nl wrote: Hallo Taco,
Real API documentation will be provided once I am past the "alpha" release stage. At the moment, I do not trust the API enough to expose it to anything except controlled environments (lua mplib, newmpost)
Isn't mplib a dll under windows?
It is possible to build the unix version as a .so because support for that comes from autofoo automatically, but that is not yet officially supported: debugging dynamic libraries is harder than debugging static code.
On the other side, it is very easy to replace a dll by a new version, if the interface stays stable.
MPlib could become a dll on windows eventually, but first someone will have to explain to me how to create a windows dll (and I vastly prefer a solution that does not involve me having to pay Microsoft any money).
You have not to pay anything, to build a Dll. And there is Msys for example, which works in a unix-environment under windows. Should be no problem.
I have exactly zero knowledge in that area and do not have a Windows installation either: the one and only XP machine here is my wife's gaming machine and that is strictly offlimits to me.
:-)
Future versions of luatex and mpost itself (and potential other texlive programs) will almost certainly remain statically linked because that is much more convenient for us as maintainers.
If there is more than one program, which is using mplib, you have to update all theses programs, if you make some mplib changes. But I think that a dll could very much boost the metapost usage. It would than be very easy to write third party software. Wolfgang
Wolfgang Werners-Lucchini wrote:
On 12 Apr 2008 at 12:00, ntg-context-request@ntg.nl wrote:
Hallo Taco,
Real API documentation will be provided once I am past the "alpha" release stage. At the moment, I do not trust the API enough to expose it to anything except controlled environments (lua mplib, newmpost)
Isn't mplib a dll under windows? It is possible to build the unix version as a .so because support for that comes from autofoo automatically, but that is not yet officially supported: debugging dynamic libraries is harder than debugging static code.
On the other side, it is very easy to replace a dll by a new version, if the interface stays stable.
sure, but it also introduced unneeded mails on support lists of users who mix up things; we'd probably end up with the same situation as kpse ... mplib234.dll and so, which does not improve things either
If there is more than one program, which is using mplib, you have to update all theses programs, if you make some mplib changes.
indeed, but contrary to tex livem where all binaries are updated in sync, for moving targets like luatex we want to be sure that things match; disk space is cheap, and telling user to download 'this' and 'that' and put 'such' and 'so' in locations 'here' and 'there' is more trouble than let them just download one binary etc
But I think that a dll could very much boost the metapost usage. It would than be very easy to write third party software.
maybe, but that is independent of being used in luatex and mpost itself; as taco mentioned, there it will be staticaly linked, just as lua and its libs Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------
participants (2)
-
Hans Hagen -
Wolfgang Werners-Lucchini