Re: [Visualpython-users] OS X Native

[Dethe E. <de...@li...>]

On 24-Jun-05, at 6:39 PM, Jonathan Brandmeyer wrote:

> VPython itself will work with Boost.Python 1.31 or higher (1.33
> recommended right now).  However, different releases of Boost do not
> maintain any binary compatibility between them.  So if you decide to
> upgrade Boost.Python, you must recompile VPython.  Note that you do  
> not
> need to build any part of Boost other than the Python library.  The
> Boost Serialization Library is known to break Apple's custom  
> release of
> GCC, so your build will probably fail if you try to build everything.
>

Ah, knowing I only had to build Boost.Python would have helped.   
Boost 1.32.0_0 appears to have built cleanly from darwin ports, but  
it took a *loooong* time.


> That assessment is correct.  I think you will probably be able to  
> reuse
> the parts of platlinux.{cpp,h} that use POSIX (esp Pthreads).
>

Excellent!  As I recall the earlier version used GTK methods for  
threading, which complicated porting.  Posix will be a breath of  
fresh air after that.


> Thanks to the threading, some of the code flowpaths are hard to  
> follow,
> but I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about it.
>

I'll try to ask questions sooner rather than later.  I have a bad  
habit of trying to figure everything out for myself, which takes a  
lot longer and is far more frustrating.


> Your effort will be best spent working on the current release series,
> since the platform-specific/platform-agnostic boundaries are going to
> change a lot in the development sources before I start releasing  
> it.  I
> expect that your experience porting the stable VPython to native OSX
> will carry over to vpython-core2 (which will be publicly numbered  
> 4.0).
>

Yes, I will cut my teeth on the stable source.  If that goes well,  
perhaps I can
help port to the Cocoa context.  The new branch sounds very exciting,  
some things
I've looked forward to for a long time.

Thanks for the help and feedback!

--Dethe

There are two ways of constructing a software design.  One way is to  
make it so simple there are obviously no deficiencies and the other  
way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious  
deficiencies.  --C.A.R. Hoare