Re: [Boost-testing] Re: [iostreams] ATTENTION all Windows testers

From: Rene Rivera (grafik.list_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-24 15:34:35

Jonathan Turkanis wrote:
> Rene Rivera wrote:
> 
>>Jonathan Turkanis wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Two of the iostreams regression tests, gzip_test.cpp and
>>>zlib_test.cpp rely on the third-party open source library zlib. In
>>>addition, bzip2_test.cpp relies on the third-party open source
>>>library libbz2.
>>
>>Ideally those tests and features would be disabled if the libraries
>>are not available.

> As far as I know there's no standard location for either zlib source or binary
> on Windows, so I don't see how to do this unless I disable the compression
> filters by default on Windows.

If you are requiring that users/testers set the environment vars to 
indicate where those are installed. Then you can use that fact that 
those are set, or not set, to enable, disable the features.

I don't think this applies only to Windows though. It's equally 
plausible for Unix like compilation to fail if those libraries are not 
available in standard locations (those found by the compiler by default).

So I would always lean towards not enabling such "optional" features 
unless asked for by the user. It's a question of whether you are willing 
to answer the inevitable questions from users why the library doesn't 
work the first time a user builds it ;-)

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