Re: [Mingw-users] No FlexLexer.h

[Keith M. <kei...@us...>]

On Tuesday 07 December 2010 22:47:13 Simson Garfinkel wrote:
> > Then you must be developing a C++ scanner.  Flex supports that,
> > certainly, but in a manner branded very visibly as experimental.
> > The core purpose of flex is to generate C scanners, and these
> > don't need FlexLexer.h at all.
>
> Yep. I'm developing a C++ scanner. (Or, rather, I developed one.)  It
> turns out that flex isn't too insistent about which FlexLexer.h you
> use, so I'm just using one from another platform and it works.

For any given flex version, you'll probably find it's identically the 
same, regardless of platform; the C++ class declarations it provides 
wouldn't incur platform dependencies.

> > With respect, if you want to play with experimental (alpha)
> > features, then you really should have sufficient "nouse" to
> > provision the header for yourself, (and the library, if you need
> > it).
>
> In fact, I am doing that.

Sure.  I didn't mean to imply otherwise.  My point is that, given the 
specialised nature of the development that requires FlexLexer.h, (or 
even -lfl), the omission of a MinGW specific development kit may not be 
an especially critical issue.  Nevertheless, it is an issue which we 
would like to address, and we are grateful to you for bringing it to 
our attention.  Thanks.

> >>> My big recommendation is that the current strategy of having the
> >>> MinGW native compiler ignoring /usr/ is probably a mistake.
> >>
> >> No, it most certainly is not. ?
> >
> > Agreed.  I've already pointed the OP to the relevant MinGWiki docs,
> > which explain why MinGW's GCC doesn't look in /usr -- what *is*
> > /usr anyway, on a bare MS-Windows box?  He isn't going to win any
> > sympathy by continuing to beat this drum.
>
> I believe that I stopped beating this drum when the library issue was
> explained.

Well, yes and no.  You did raise it again, *after* acknowledging the 
links I furnished, which explain why MinGW can't use /usr, (because the 
MinGW GCC really has no way to comprehend what /usr might represent).  
After you did raise it again, Chuck offered another (secondary) reason 
which, while valid, is strictly relevant in particular to those who 
participate in MSYS development, and to a lesser extent to those who 
use MSYS to to host their MinGW development environment; while /usr may 
have a defined meaning in the MSYS hosted environment, to applications 
which are linked against msys-1.0.dll, that meaning doesn't propagate 
to other native Win32 applications, which do not link against this DLL.  
MinGW's GCC is such a native Win32 application.

That aside, our last two posts crossed in the ether -- I didn't see your 
reply to Chuck until after I'd posted the above.

-- 
Regards,
Keith.