Re: [Mingw-cross-env-list] DirectShow Phonon Backend for Qt

[Volker Grabsch]

Mark Brand <address@hidden> schrieb:
> Quoth Volker:
> >
> > I think we should first have a clear picture of the relationships between:
> >
> >     * The DirectX headers/libs provided by MinGW's original mingwrt
> >   
> 
> Do you mean w32api?

Yes, I meant w32api. Sorry for the confusion.

> >     * The DirectX 9 headers/libs of Microsoft (repackaged by Allegro)
> >   
> 
> Some of the files have the same names as directx files. Is that really
> "9"?  Am I misunderstanding the "8" in the package name dx80_mgw?

Yes, it is DirectX 8, but there were also plans to support
DirectX 9 when someone packages it. Again, sorry for the
confusion.

> I notice dx80_mgw *overwrites* the dshow.h of w32api. Is that by design?
> If not, maybe dx80_mgw headers should be isolated in their own
> subdirectory.

In some earlier discussions around the DirectX issue on this list,
starting at:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/mingw-cross-env-list/2010-01/msg00025.html

it was concluded that MinGW's w32api package contains a somewhat
"crippled" version of some outdated DirectX stuff:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/mingw-cross-env-list/2010-01/msg00053.html

So the intention was to install everything of w32api except
DirectX, and to use DirectX from the Allegro package. But I
thought it would be easier (and less prone to errors) if we
just let the directx package overwrite the unwanted DirectX
files of w32api.

FWIW, there was even the idea to use DirectX directly from
Microsoft instead of Allegro, but that would mean downloading
and unpacking a 500 MB big EXE installer file, just to extract
a few KBs worth of files from it. That's why we're using the
package of the Allegro project, which already performed that
repackaging.

> >     * The DirectX headers/libs of MinGW-gcc440_1.zip
> 
> The "mingw-dshow" package has just enough DirectShow for Phonon work.
> So, I think you could in principle see it as an update for dx80_mgw, but
> not a full one. In theory I suppose the headers could be merged, but
> that job is too big for me.

As I already mentioned, it might be a good idea to:

    * manually download and unpack the latest official Microsoft
      DirectX stuff

    * correct the headers, and convert the libraries using the
      "reimp" tool  (see the mailing list entry mentioned above)

    * repackage them, and ideally, include them directly into
      MinGW's official w32api package

Of course, please correct me if I'm missing some important
point here.

> Would it be a good idea to put the "mingw-dshow" headers in a special
> subdir of usr/i686-pc-mingw32/include so the names don't collide with
> dx80_mgw headers? (Assuming the dx80_mgw headers stay where they are.)

I don't think it is a good idea to separate these DirectX headers.
No build script expects multiple DirectX versions in separate
directories. And I also don't think this is really necessary.

What we need is _one_ coherent piece of DirectX headers and
interface libs - either as part of the w32api package, or as
a separate "directx" package.


Greets,

    Volker

-- 
Volker Grabsch
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