Re: [Libusb-devel] libusb-1.0 Windows backend when WinUSB isafilter driver

[Xiaofan C. <xia...@gm...>]

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 8:36 AM, Pete Batard <pb...@gm...> wrote:
> All I can say is, I'll see what I can do. Seemed to be fairly explicit
> to me how to use the snaphost files, and apart from Xiaofan's complaint,
> which, and I apologize to him, I'm going to place mostly in end user
> mistake (though I reckon import libraries are not supposed to change
> that often), I don't remember seeing posts complaining about the binary
> snapshots, while they have been downloaded at a steady rate [1]. If
> developer-users had such a hard time using them, I'd expect to have seen
> some feedback by now.
> [1] http://code.google.com/p/libusb-winusb-wip/downloads/list

Ok, now I know your stand and I think the current snapshots serve
the purpose you intended.

I was more in the line of treating the binary snapshots as "semi-official".

BTW, it is nice to see the total download count of the binary snapshots
is steadily increasing.

> I think DLL is more explicit for Windows developer-users than shared, so
> I'm planning to keep DLL. I'll add a static to libs or something.
>
> But sheesh, the amount of justification you have to deliver for what was
> really a 5 mins "you want some binaries - there you go: AS IS" job.

I see now. I think in this case, the current binary snapshots are
probably good enough.

> If it's going to turn out in another "do it properly or don't bother", then
> I have a fairly clear idea of which side I'm going to go with, since
> doing it properly requires an official installer.

An installer is probably good to have in the future. On the other hand,
even without an installer, a zip archive can archive the goal you want
with better documentation or wiki page and examples.

Just an example, libusb-win32 libraries are mainly distributed as a
zip file: libusb-win32-bin-1.2.1.0.zip. There is also an installer,
mainly for the filter service, wrapped in a zip file to discourage
people from using it: libusb-win32-devel-filter-1.2.1.0.zip. Of course,
there is also the 3rd package, the source package.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb-win32/files/

Judging from the download count, indeed, Windows users
typically download the binary, not the source package.
So we set the default download for Windows users to the
binary package. For the other OS, we set the default download
to be the source package since some of them may want
to cross-compile the package.

-- 
Xiaofan