Re: [bug-gnu-libiconv] libiconv 1.11 - build for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (VC 8)

[Bruno Haible]

Dear Milan,

> we switched to new version of Microsoft Visual Studio - 2005 
> (VC++ 8) and we wanted to continue using iconv
> ... we also switched to new version of iconv (1.11).
> ... I also attached our own 
> workaround page, which follows instructions from the previous link and adds 
> more comments on changes.

Thank you for this detailed workaround list. I appreciate that you took the
time to write down not only the resolution, but also the issue that caused
it, and some explanation. This makes it possible for me to reply to your
mail without asking further questions.

> I wanted to ask if there is a possibility that development team working on 
> iconv consider these workarounds (and apply something similar to the new 
> version).

libiconv 1.12 and newer have stopped the support of the MSVC + nmake development
environment altogether; now mingw is the only supported environment for building
libiconv as a native Woe32 library.

But I have no problem creating a libiconv-1.11.1 release (from libiconv-1.11)
with modifications along your list. You find at
  http://libiconv.sourceforge.net/libiconv-1.11-msvc.tar.gz
a tarball that, if you confirm that it builds out of the box on MSVC, will
be renamed to libiconv-1.11.1.tar.gz.

I addressed the issues that you found as follows:

  1) EXEEXT undefined
     I added its definition to the CFLAGS in srclib/Makefile.msvc. Why not
     in config.h.msvc, as you proposed? Because the Unix config.h does not
     define EXEEXT either.
     Also note that the definition must include the dot, i.e. ".exe", not
     "exe".

  2) width module is not included in build configuration
     I modified srclib/Makefile.msvc like you did, keeping the order of
     object files in sync with srclib/Makefile.am.

  3) stdint.h unit is not present in MSVC compiler
     I added a tiny stdint.h replacement in the windows/ directory.
     So that the other source files can remain untouched.

  4) POSIX library unistd.h not present in MSVC compiler
     Likewise: I added a tiny unistd.h replacement in the windows/ directory.

Please test it and let me know if other problems still remain. Thanks.

Bruno