Re: [Boost-cmake] Graphical binary installers for 1.36.0?

From: Doug Gregor (doug.gregor_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-17 11:13:26

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 10:13 AM, Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> Is there still a plan to supply graphical binary installers for 1.36.0?

Yes.

> If so, who needs to do what and when?

Major steps:
  (1) Get the functionality we need into CMake/CPack (done; it'll be
in CMake 2.6.1)
     - Update Boost-CMake to use the latest 'n' greatest CPack
functionality (not done yet; this is mine to do)
  (2) Modularize Boost (describe headers and dependencies of each library)
  (3) Fix any remaining issues with the CMake build
     - Make sure every Boost library has its tests running in CMake
     - Get the remaining Boost tools building with CMake (e.g., bcp)
     - Figure out how we want to deal with documentation
builds/installs in CMake
     - Carefully check the CMake-build libraries against the BBv2
versions for consistency
  (4) Tweak the generated installers with appropriate Boost branding

I'm currently stuck on (2), because there's a huge, messy web of
dependencies in Boost (including circular library dependencies), and I
haven't had a proper modularized build working since we made the
HEADERS switch. At this point, I think I'm going to back off the
partial modularization of the libraries that we have now; instead,
I'll go through and fully modularize libraries starting at the leaves
in the dependency tree. We'll probably be left with a tangled mess as
the "core" of Boost (config, type_traits, preprocessor, and mpl, which
are all intertwined), but that's the best we'll get with the time I
have. So (2) is my problem.

Anyone can work on (3) or (4), and of course I'd love to have some help :)
I think both will go relatively quickly.

> In particular, does anything need to change as far as preparing the release
> goes?

No, I don't think so. I'll build the installers myself, because you
probably don't want to burden your release scripts by building all of
Boost a couple extra times. Plus, you'd need CMake 2.6.1, NSIS, etc,
to do the installer buillds.

  - Doug