Re: Will the real libiconv please stand up! Was : Re: [Mingw-users] baby steps, an half-finshed packaging of libiconv (very boring)

[James Michael DuPont <mdupont777 yahoo com>]

Bruno,

Thank you for pointing out my mistakes, you have shed some light on
this whole issue. 

I hope that my asking questions have helped in some way to bring all
these questions to light, even if I was wrong on my conclusions.

--- Bruno Haible <bruno clisp org> wrote:
> James Michael DuPont writes:
>
> > First of all I am talking about a mingw32 under debian, and second
> of
> > all, please excuse that I overlooked your particular port, because
> > there is no clear guidelines for the user as to which of the MANY
> ports
> > he should use. 
>
> * If you want to build from source, start out at the package's
>   homepage, as listed on freshmeat.net.
>
> * If you want cygwin binaries, go to http://www.cygwin.com/ and
>   http://www.cygwin.com/download.html
>
> * If you want mingw32 binaries, go to
> http://mingwrep.sourceforge.net/
And this is the official port? So http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/ and
it are in competition?

 
> * If you want pw32 binaries, go to http://pw32.sourceforge.net/
Do you know where to find libiconv there?

 
> I think the confusion would be less if the
> http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/ page would state clearly which
> environment/compiler they use: mingw32 or pw32 or cygwin or msvc.
Well, you do have to click a few times to find it,
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/compile.html tells you that mingw is
needed.

> Your platform ("mingw32 under debian") appears to be new. With each
> new platform or set of packaging rules you start from scratch.

I will do just that. The only things that were a problem were some
linking problems, I will be posting very detailed patches to you on
anything I find.
 
> > lets look for iconv :
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/libiconv/  -- This is from Haible
>
> This is the CVS repository for libiconv.
That is what I will be using.

> > http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/libiconv  -- Oh another one!
>
> This is the CVS repository for libiconv's homepage.
Ahhh.... I was to quick to shoot!
Sorry. :)

> > http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/      -- The GNU Package
>
> This is libiconv's homepage.

OK, well it looks like every other page (including the gnu software
directory) is slightly off. 

> Earnie Boyd writes:
> > The real libiconv would be the one who owns it, the FSF.  One of
> the
> > problems with these smaller packages is the lack of CVS support. 
> If
> > the official maintainer used CVS then a branch could be set and all
> > of the above porters would have contributed to the same port.
>
> All wrong. libiconv is maintained in a CVS, and the lack of CVS
> branches for cygwin/mingw32/etc. is because:
>
>   - It compiles out of the box on cygwin,
>   - It compiles out of the box for mingw32, except for a one-liner
>     patch,
>   - It compiles out of the box for msvc, using the included
>     Makefile.msvc.

This is fine, I noticed that you just updated cvs with the mingw32
stuff. I will be using your cvs for compilation and writing to all the
people who distribute binaries to update thier links to point at your
page. 

You must admit however, 
that for a complete outsider, it is very confusing!
 
> James Michael DuPont writes:
> > I found out that FSF does not own the libiconv
>
> Wrong. The FSF does own libiconv. Look at the copyright notices.

I am sorry about this misunderstanding, 
I was not looking deep enought, trying to go on superficial
information. 

Even in my discussion with the FSF, they did not know offhand that
libiconv was thier own copyright.

"Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   This file is part of the GNU LIBICONV Library."

But on the webpage here :
http://www.gnu.org/directory/libiconv.html
It states : "This is not a GNU package."

(Note that it (Broken) links to here which is not here:
ftp://ftp.ilog.fr/pub/Users/haible/gnu/libiconv-1.8.tar.gz

> > Bruno Haible has THREE! different CVS controls of the sources, 
> > two on sourceforge (libiconv,clisp), one on savannah. And none on
> the
> > GNU CVS.
>
> Wrong again. Take a look at the contents of these CVS repositories.
> Only one of them contains the maintained sources of libiconv.
OK, it is this one :
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/libiconv/libiconv/


Thanks again for you time, you have cleared up many of my questions.

mike

=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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