#172 Get the Windows build running

[Ulf Lorenz]

Depends on [#225]

What and Why

Pick up where [#100] left, and finally get the Windows build in a runnable state (see [WindowsBuild] for what has been done).

This would be a perfect place to ask for external knowledge, either Windows or Python-specific. The final goal is not only to get the Windows compilation up and running, but have a cooking recipe that reasonably ensures that the whole thing can be built easily also for the next release(s).

Current State

• dependencies should be handled with vcpkg, that seems to be the only sane way of doing so on Windows.
  • Problem: Does not always work out of the box
• Tensor library has an experimental CMake version, but this is not sufficiently finished
  • Lots of loose ends: include directories of dependencies are not found automatically, MSVC does not handle dynamically sized arrays, so you need to patch heavily, ...
• Altogether, using e.g. Vagrant to easily set up a Linux VM seems way simpler than porting the whole thing to Windows => Downgraded priority

Acceptance criteria

• Call for help: Building the Windows version; either asking for Python experts or Windows experts.
• Get the Python module into a state where you can install it on a different computer and Wavepacket works there.
  ** Suggestion: Build a proper Python wheel with library namespacing and all that.
• Prepare a cooking recipe on the wiki that describes all steps required to build WavePacket for Windows.
  • Crop all unneeeded things
• Do all other work required for reproducible building (VM setup? others?)
• Check and update all licenses. In contrast to all other releases, the Windows release would be a binary package with all dependencies, so the licenses should be appropriate.
• Release 0.3 or 0.3.1 as Windows version
  • Prepare a proper package (add demos, documentation, Readme for the installation)
  • Release the version, announce it

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Assembled and tested a Howto for creating a Python module under Windows, https://sourceforge.net/p/wavepacket/cpp/wiki/WindowsBuild/.

The code required very few changes, actually. Most of the work was getting the whole thing to build and run under Windows (I cannot recommend this operating system for hacking).

[Ulf Lorenz]

postponed; though this would be a cool feature, I would like to try the Python build with CMake first. This might simplify this issue considerably.

[Ulf Lorenz]

Pushed back because the tensor library is just switching to CMake, which would make this issue much simpler.