Re: [avrdude-dev] [patch #8967] Change ft2xx library to ftdi_syncbb instead of libusb

[Didrik Madheden]

On 7 April 2016 at 08:19, Joerg Wunsch <address@hidden> wrote:
>> For now patch replaces existing ft245r.c but if this idea can be live,
>> it can be realized as option and use ftd2xx instead of libusb only when
>> it is needed. Like compiling with different versions of libusb and libftdi.
>
> I am not completely opposed to it, as long as it remains optional.
> Preferrably, not even autodetected but with an --with-ft2xx configure
> option, so even people who have installed FT2XX can voluntarily decide
> whether they'd like to have their AVRDUDE build linked against it or
> not.

I think there is a point to having an official binary with support
FT2xx. It would be for the benefit of exactly those who don't have the
skill or time to build their own avrdude. This also intersects with a
previous suggestion of mine for the Windows build, which was frowned
upon at that time. You could conditionally load DLLs on demand using
the LoadLibrary API function, instead of statically linking them.
Avrdude could handle missing libraries gracefully instead of failing
with an OS error message that a DLL is missing before avrdude even has
a chance to run. This would already make avrdude more useful for
people using avrdude only for serial style programmers, so they won't
need to find a libusb dll just to let the program run. Doing this, the
Windows version could be shipped with complete functionality without
depending on which DLLs are available to run at all.

-- 
/Didrik