Re: [patch #3946] Add make support for windows PE resources

[Sheldon Gill]

Nicola Pero wrote:
> Update of patch #3946 (project gnustep):
>
>              Assigned to:                    None => nico                   
>
>     _______________________________________________________
>
> Follow-up Comment #1:
>
> I was browsing the list of bugs on Savannah when I noticed the list of patches
> (I didn't know it was there!), and this patch in particular.
>
> Thanks -- it's a good one.  We've just added something really similar to
> gnustep-make HEAD -- the only real difference with this patch is that the
> variable is called xxx_WINDRES_FILES instead of xxx_RC_FILES.

The reason I didn't do that is RC_FILE has an implied meaning in Unix which I 
felt could confuse things.

> Also, on CVS we only add those rules for mingw32.  Maybe we should always have
> them like in this patch ?  Problem is, windres is not available on (eg)
> GNU/Linux.  So the idea is that you'd have a xxx_WINDRES_FILES and they would
> be compiled in but only on Windows (presumably in some cases you have
> resources that you want to compile in only on windows ?)

Windres is open source and supports elf targets so you can use it on Linux. 
Beside which I thought it cleaner to have unconditional support and allow the 
GNUmakefile to control things. I like leaving decisions in the hands of the 
programmer.

> Another comment is that in this patch you have $(RCFLAGS) ... maybe we need
> something like that ?  Any example of flags that someone might want to pass to
> windres ?

We need something like that. Consider:

Usage: windres [option(s)] [input-file] [output-file]
 The options are:
  -i --input=<file>            Name input file
  -o --output=<file>           Name output file
  -J --input-format=<format>   Specify input format
  -O --output-format=<format>  Specify output format
  -F --target=<target>         Specify COFF target
     --preprocessor=<program>  Program to use to preprocess rc file
  -I --include-dir=<dir>       Include directory when preprocessing rc file
  -D --define <sym>[=<val>]    Define SYM when preprocessing rc file
  -U --undefine <sym>          Undefine SYM when preprocessing rc file
  -v --verbose                 Verbose - tells you what it's doing
  -l --language=<val>          Set language when reading rc file
     --use-temp-file           Use a temporary file instead of popen to read
                               the preprocessor output
     --no-use-temp-file        Use popen (default)
  -r                           Ignored for compatibility with rc
  -h --help                    Print this help message

Let's see... defining symbols is frequently useful. Being verbose is generally 
helpful when things are going wrong. I've needed to specify non-default targets 
at times in the past. I can see situations when specifying an additional 
include directory is needed...


Regards,
Sheldon