Re: [Freeglut-developer] FreeGLUT binaries for win32 systems

[John F. F. <joh...@cy...>]

Chris,

         If I remember correctly, the original issue was one of 
distributing binaries as part of a source distribution.  We didn't 
particularly want to do that.  Instead we put something in the Readme 
file (again if I remember correctly) telling people who want binaries 
to contact me.  Over the years I have had a few requests for 
binaries, but not very many.

         I'm certainly willing to reconsider but I am not the person 
in charge.  I'm just Johnny-on-the-spot.

                 - John



At 01:04 PM 10/24/2009, you wrote:

>For portability reasons, we've just released a version of
>the Perl Data Language that uses FreeGLUT to provide the
>GUI interface for our 3D graphics display routines.
>
>FreeGLUT has been successful in that now we have OpenGL
>based 3D graphics on PC and Mac OS X platforms in addition
>to the original many flavors of unix+X11+GLX.
>
>The problem that has arisen is that there is no real
>package manager for MS Windows systems.  The result
>is that PDL users on windows must install a full C
>development environment, then build their own copy
>of the FreeGLUT library, install it correctly, and then,
>if all that worked, they can build PDL from scratch.
>
>As a temporary work around, we've included the win32 dll
>and include files for windows systems without FreeGLUT
>(all of them unless the user has installed them themselves).
>This works for win32 XP, 2000, Vista,.. but breaks for x64
>versions.  It also has the problem of including a binary
>library within a source code distribution.
>
>I was thinking we could distribute the needed dlls from
>our sourceforge web site, but then I realized that it
>would make more sense for FreeGLUT to distribute the same
>from their own sourceforge web site.
>
>I don't know what the original issues around making binary
>installs available for windows were but I would like to
>open up the discussion again.  For example, I was thinking
>that now that FreeGLUT is more cross-platform than its X11
>origins, it might make sense to reconsider.  (And, yes,
>I understand that this is actually fixing a problem with
>windows itself as far as installation of external packages.
>However, with 90% of the computers out there running
>windows, it seems like cutting off my nose to spite my
>face to not provide a way forward---sans hassle---for win32
>folks)
>
>I tried to look up the previous discussion but I could
>not find any mailing list archives that I could search.
>
>Looking forward to hearing back with your thoughts,
>Chris Marshall
>
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