[ODE] documentation initiative

[Russ Smith]

people,

ODE would certainly benefit from having pre-built libraries for various
platforms. however, there are a few practical problems.

(1) for windows, there are a number of different compilers that people
use. VC6, .net, borland, intel, and at least two flavors of gcc. do we
need pre-built libraries for all of them? ODE has a C interface, so if
the C ABI is *identical* between these compilers then one compiler would
be enough. in that case it would have to be the fastest/best compiler,
otherwise people will want to compile their own anyway. intel compilers
claim to be better than gcc, so maybe intel is a good choice (i have
never used it). gcc is not a strong optimizing compiler on windows/x86,
at least compared to other windows compilers.

        --> can someone tell me if the C ABI is identical for all
            windows compilers (or can be made so with compiler flags).
            if not, what are the differences?

(2) an automatic build system is a must - nobody wants to run through 20
compile cycles by hand every time something in CVS changes (remember
that we have debug/release options, float/double options, so we must
build for all option settings for all platforms). on sourceforge it is
(i think) possible to run automatic builds for *nix environments, but
not for windows. how can we auto-build windows libs without a dedicated
windows machine? one answer is to build cross-platform using gcc on
linux. but this wont please every windows user, see (1).

of course this would take time to set up, but it might be worth it
provided the above two problems can be solved.

russ.

-- 
Russell Smith
http://www.q12.org