If I remember correctly, one issue was the fact that after MSVC++ 6.0 the
runtime libraries were not anymore "system libraries" as they had to be
shipped with the software you build and package. The GPL then requires that
the C runtime libraries must be provided with their source code, which
Microsoft feels reluctant to.
Another problem is that the MSVC++ 2003 tooklit only contains *static*
libraries, so yuo could potentially have serious issues about "I thought
that chunk of memory was allocated in *my* module, but it doesn't seem to be
true". You'll have to rebuild all modules Ethereal relies upon today (Gtk,
GLib and their dependencies for a start - maybe some other people already
tried this in the Gtk/Glib/GNOME community).
I have been playing with this toolkit and it is a good thing Microsoft
provides it. However I don't know whether it can be used for building
Ethereal. I'm not a "librarian" (library expert), to be honest. So you may
find a way for getting it to work.
If you search for "MSVC" and "toolkit" in ethereal-dev you'll probably find
dozens of mails already; some of them may be relevant to your project!
Best regards, and Good Luck!
Olivier
----- Original Message -----
From: Ulf Lamping
Mike Perry wrote:
I was wondering if it might be possible to provide versions of the
support libraries (the ones provided at
http://anonsvn.ethereal.com/ethereal-win32-libs/tags/2005-01-17/packages/)
that are compiled with the VC Toolkit 2003 and linked against it's
MSVCR71.dll so that it would be possible to compile ethereal using
Visual Studio .NET without having to fight these MSVCRT
incompatibility issues?
The VC Toolkit EULA does not restrict your ability to distribute
binary versions of anything you compile, so you should be spared from
the spurious "NO GPL" clause of the Visual Studio .NET EULA if you
use the toolkit.
The VC Toolkit can be found at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/eula.aspx
Well, the libraries you've mentioned are not compiled by the Ethereal
project.
For infos where all the libs are coming from, see the file
doc/README.win32 in the sources (or here
http://anonsvn.ethereal.com/ethereal/trunk/README.win32) or the "Ethereal
Developer's Guide" which you can find at:
http://wiki.ethereal.com/Development
So unfortunately, there are a lot more people involved in this topic.
If you can persuade all of them to provide the libs on both ways (6.x and
7.x versions), I would like to bring this to life as I like the idea, but
I fear not everyone will do so or don't spend the time required for it :-(
Regards, ULFL
