Re: Windows Build System - My final thoughts - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Man, I go away for one day, and look what you guys get into.  :-)

Let me shoot out some comments on this.

First, clearly the Win32 port is going to have more port-specific code
paths than any other port, so it is going to require extra testing even
if it wasn't our first non-Unix port.  You can expect it to take some
extra effort even after the port has stabalized because when we add
something that works only on Unix, we will need to code some workaround
in Win32.

Second, there are going to be new error cases on this platform that we
can't anticipate, and some of that isn't going to show until we get it
released.  Documenting those pitfalls, like only using NTFS, is a good
start.

Third, I suspect folks running Win32 aren't as particular about
stability/reliability, or they would have left MS products already.

Fourth, some say Win32 isn't an acceptable platform.  It may or may not
be for specific people, but Linux may be an unacceptable platform for
some people too.  I don't think we can second guess the users.  We will
do our best and see how it goes.

Also, I have heard from several people that XP is the first OS MS got
right.  That may or may not be true, but some feel things are getting
better.  It is all a continuim with these OS's.  Some are great, some
mediocre, some really bad, but people make decisions and choose bad ones
all the time.  PostgreSQL just needs to be there, if only to migrate
them to a better platform later.  If we aren't there, we can't show them
how good we are.

As for build environment, we have two audiences --- those using
binaries, and those compiling from source.  Clearly we are going to have
more binary users vs. source users on Win32 than on any other platform,
so at this stage I think making thing easier for the majority of our
Unix developers is the priority, meaning we should use our existing
Makefiles and cygwin to compile.  Later, if things warrant it, we can do
VC++ project files somehow.

Lastly, SRA just released _today_ their first Win32 port of PostgreSQL,
and it is _threaded_:
http://osb.sra.co.jp/PowerGres/

Now, that's a port!

Also, when I am back home for an extended period starting in March, I
will going through Jan's patch (if no one does it first) and
submit/apply it in pieces that address specific Win32 issues, like path
names or carriage returns. Once those are in, we can look at the more
complex issues of build handling.

So, as far as I am concerned, we will have a Win32 port in 7.4.  It will
not be perfect, but it will be as good as we can do.  We are also
getting point-in-time recovery in 7.4, so that may help us with Win32
port failures too.

--  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610)
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