Re: Remove MSVC scripts from the tree

On Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 11:18:52AM +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Other than the documentation details and the business about
> Gen_dummy_probes, which has been dealt with separately, this patch looks
> solid to me.

Thanks.

> It's tricky. Eventually, we would like to reduce some of the duplication,
> like the whole list of requirements. But there are some Windows-specific
> details in there, so I don't know.

Yes, that's something I was considering but polluting the meson
dependency list with Windows-specific links was not the best way
forward to me, because there are few users who care about knowing
where Active Perl or an equivalent is located.

> My suggestion would be:
>
> Make a new <sect2 id="installation-notes-windows"> titled "Windows" at the
> end of installation.sgml (after the Solaris section). Dump most of the
> content from install-windows.sgml in there (except the stuff about the old
> build system). Rename the existing section "MinGW/Native Windows" to just
> "MinGW" and make some minor adjustments, similar to your patch.
>
> That way, we can move forward, and we can adjust and trim the details of the
> documentation over time.

The latest patch I have sent is close to that, actually. Instead of
creating a new section, I have integrated the contents of
install-windows.sgml into the existing section dedicated to MinGW and
native Windows because some parts apply to both of them, like the
crash reporting facility. So this gave the following structure:
- sect2 MinGW/Native Windows
-- sect3 Requirements
-- sect3 MinGW
-- sect3 Visual Studio
-- sect3 Special Considerations for 64-Bit Windows
-- sect3 Collecting Crash Dumps on Windows

The last parts affects both MinGW and VS builds, while the first
requirement part applies only to native (references to MinGW are only
there to handle dependencies for the builds). So I'm OK to live with
a bit of duplication across two sect2 rather than attempt to unify
them, while renaming the current MinGW/native section.

With the requirements and the SDK-related guidelines, all the
information seems from the original install-windows.sgml seems to be
around. Hopefully I did not miss a spot.

Attached is a v4. hamerkop and bowerbird still rely on that in the
buildfarm today.
--
Michael