[ODE] documentation initiative

[Luke Palmer]

Mike Wuetherick writes:
> > It didn't take us much to build on windows, all you have to do is read
> > the Wiki, download GNU make (they point you right to it, and there's
> > no "install", just a copy), run a batch file, and type "make".  Simple
> > stuff for any programmer.  It'd certainly be nice if the main page
> > would point more directly to that document, however.
> 
> Would also be nice if you could point us to said document if it's 
> mentioned ;}

I was going to, but then I, um, didn't.  %-)

    http://q12.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Building_ODE_With_VS.NET

> >And it was very nice for our cross-platform game that ODE was friendly
> >for the other operating systems.  It uses a Makefile, so we can include
> >it right in our tree and hack the internals to our heart's content, and
> >it builds nicely right along with the rest of our project.
> 
> Is there a 'faq' anywhere online (or in a reference/book?) that points 
> out the blatantly obvious things that you WILL run into in this regard?
> 
> I have a number of excellent books on cross-platform programming, but 
> none that even mention build/compiler issues that one might run into, 
> they all seem to assume that you will just 'figure it out' it seems.

Yeah, I haven't found a book that describes this sort of thing, either.
Microsoft won't release one, because part of their business strategy is
to be non-conformant and exclusive (this isn't an insult, it's a valid
and sucessful strategy, unfortunately).  Nobody else will release one
because Windows's answer keeps changing.

I've learned the little bit I know from the Configure masterminds of the
Perl community (Brent Dax, Arthur Bergman).  I can get something running
on Windows, Linux, and OSX, but Perl runs on every practical operating
system man has ever known.  Probably some alien ones, too.

Luke