[Plplot-cvs] SF.net SVN: plplot:[12859] trunk/README.release

[<ai...@us...>]

Revision: 12859
          http://sourceforge.net/p/plplot/code/12859
Author:   airwin
Date:     2013-12-12 21:51:56 +0000 (Thu, 12 Dec 2013)
Log Message:
-----------
Describe epa_build.

Modified Paths:
--------------
    trunk/README.release

Modified: trunk/README.release
===================================================================
--- trunk/README.release	2013-12-12 21:29:52 UTC (rev 12858)
+++ trunk/README.release	2013-12-12 21:51:56 UTC (rev 12859)
@@ -27,7 +27,9 @@
 3.1 NUMERIC_INCLUDE_PATH ==> NUMPY_INCLUDE_PATH
 3.2 Major overhaul of the build system and bindings for Tcl and friends
 3.3 Substantial overhaul of the build system for the Qt-components of PLplot
+3.4 The epa_build project has been implemented
 
+
 4. OFFICIAL NOTICES FOR USERS SINCE 5.8.0 (the previous stable release)
 
 5. Changes relative to PLplot 5.8.0 (the previous stable release)
@@ -107,6 +109,7 @@
 5.67 NUMERIC_INCLUDE_PATH ==> NUMPY_INCLUDE_PATH
 5.68 Major overhaul of the build system and bindings for Tcl and friends
 5.69 Substantial overhaul of the build system for the Qt-components of PLplot
+5.70 The epa_build project has been implemented
 
 1. OFFICIAL NOTICES FOR USERS SINCE 5.9.10 (the previous development release)
 
@@ -197,10 +200,9 @@
 now been split (see remarks in the above OFFICIAL NOTICES for more
 details).  Many bugs have been fixed, and all tests documented in
 examples/tcl/README.tcldemos and examples/tk/README.tkdemos have now
-been implemented as tests via the build system (FIXME.  Make sure
-Arjen has done this for the last runAllDemos.tcl test by the release
-or else rewrite this statment) to help avoid any regressions in the
-build system and bindings for Tcl and friends in the future.
+been implemented as tests via the build system to help avoid any
+regressions in the build system and bindings for Tcl and friends in
+the future.
 
 3.3 Substantial overhaul of the build system for the Qt-components of PLplot
 
@@ -210,6 +212,49 @@
 examples/c++/qt_example for the non-dynamic drivers case have been
 resolved.
 
+3.4 The epa_build project has been implemented
+
+The goal of this project is to make builds of recent versions of
+PLplot dependencies (and PLplot itself) much more convenient on all
+platforms.  Once this goal is realized, it should make the full power
+of PLplot (which depends on the existence and quality of its
+dependencies) readily available on all platforms.  The epa_build
+project uses the power of CMake (especially the ExternalProject_Add
+command which is why we chose to use the suffix "epa_" in the name of
+epa_build) to organize downloading, updating, configuring, building,
+testing, and installing of any kind (not just those with CMake-based
+build systems) of software project with full dependency support
+between all the various builds.  For those users who are not
+satisified with the PLplot dependencies on their systems, learn how to
+use the epa_build project by consulting cmake/epa_build/README.
+
+The epa_build project is in pretty good shape on Linux; epa_build
+configurations work properly for build tools such as Tcl/Tk8.6, Itcl,
+Itk, and Iwidgets and for regular packages such as pango (needed for
+the cairo device driver), qt4_lite (needed for the qt device driver),
+the wxwidgets software package (needed for the wxwidgets device
+driver), and many smaller, but useful PLplot dependencies such as
+shapelib, libqhull, and libharu.  The total build time is roughly an
+hour for an ordinary PC which is not much of a price to pay to get
+access to up-to-date versions of virtually all dependencies of PLplot.
+In fact, the only known dependency of PLplot not currently covered by
+epa_build is octave.  In principle, it should be straightforward to
+add an epa_build configurations for octave and its many dependencies,
+but that possibility has not been explored yet.
+
+In principle, epa_build should work out of the box on Mac OS X
+platforms, but we haven't tested on that platform yet.
+
+Our testing for MinGW/MSYS and Cygwin shows the epa_build project is
+still in fairly rough shape on Windows.  It is known that the "plplot"
+case (PLplot with all its dependencies) fails in various ways on all
+Windows platforms.  Those issues are being actively worked on.  Note,
+however, that the "plplot_lite" case (PLplot with all the minor
+dependencies but without Tcl etc., build tools and without the pango,
+qt4_lite, and wxwidgets dependencies) has been shown to work on
+MinGW/MSYS and should probably also work on Cygwin although we haven't
+tested that specific case yet.
+
 4. OFFICIAL NOTICES FOR USERS SINCE 5.8.0 (the previous stable release)
 
 (5.9.11) Backwards-incompatible API change.  The numerical symbolic
@@ -1623,10 +1668,9 @@
 now been split (see remarks in the above OFFICIAL NOTICES for more
 details).  Many bugs have been fixed, and all tests documented in
 examples/tcl/README.tcldemos and examples/tk/README.tkdemos have now
-been implemented as tests via the build system (FIXME.  Make sure
-Arjen has done this for the last runAllDemos.tcl test by the release
-or else rewrite this statment) to help avoid any regressions in the
-build system and bindings for Tcl and friends in the future.
+been implemented as tests via the build system to help avoid any
+regressions in the build system and bindings for Tcl and friends in
+the future.
 
 5.69 Substantial overhaul of the build system for the Qt-components of PLplot
 
@@ -1636,3 +1680,45 @@
 examples/c++/qt_example for the non-dynamic drivers case have been
 resolved.
 
+5.70 The epa_build project has been implemented
+
+The goal of this project is to make builds of recent versions of
+PLplot dependencies (and PLplot itself) much more convenient on all
+platforms.  Once this goal is realized, it should make the full power
+of PLplot (which depends on the existence and quality of its
+dependencies) readily available on all platforms.  The epa_build
+project uses the power of CMake (especially the ExternalProject_Add
+command which is why we chose to use the suffix "epa_" in the name of
+epa_build) to organize downloading, updating, configuring, building,
+testing, and installing of any kind (not just those with CMake-based
+build systems) of software project with full dependency support
+between all the various builds.  For those users who are not
+satisified with the PLplot dependencies on their systems, learn how to
+use the epa_build project by consulting cmake/epa_build/README.
+
+The epa_build project is in pretty good shape on Linux; epa_build
+configurations work properly for build tools such as Tcl/Tk8.6, Itcl,
+Itk, and Iwidgets and for regular packages such as pango (needed for
+the cairo device driver), qt4_lite (needed for the qt device driver),
+the wxwidgets software package (needed for the wxwidgets device
+driver), and many smaller, but useful PLplot dependencies such as
+shapelib, libqhull, and libharu.  The total build time is roughly an
+hour for an ordinary PC which is not much of a price to pay to get
+access to up-to-date versions of virtually all dependencies of PLplot.
+In fact, the only known dependency of PLplot not currently covered by
+epa_build is octave.  In principle, it should be straightforward to
+add an epa_build configurations for octave and its many dependencies,
+but that possibility has not been explored yet.
+
+In principle, epa_build should work out of the box on Mac OS X
+platforms, but we haven't tested on that platform yet.
+
+Our testing for MinGW/MSYS and Cygwin shows the epa_build project is
+still in fairly rough shape on Windows.  It is known that the "plplot"
+case (PLplot with all its dependencies) fails in various ways on all
+Windows platforms.  Those issues are being actively worked on.  Note,
+however, that the "plplot_lite" case (PLplot with all the minor
+dependencies but without Tcl etc., build tools and without the pango,
+qt4_lite, and wxwidgets dependencies) has been shown to work on
+MinGW/MSYS and should probably also work on Cygwin although we haven't
+tested that specific case yet.

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