Re: [Mingw-cross-env-list] byteswap.h

[Martin Lambers]

On 29/05/11 11:36, Volker Grabsch wrote:
> Second: Can we include an alternative implementation of byteswap.h
> in mingw-cross-env? Of course we could, for instance by providing
> a package for that. For instance, we could take it from Gnulib:
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/
> http://www.gnu.org/s/hello/manual/gnulib/byteswap_002eh.html
> 
> However, I don't think this is the "right" way to do it, because
> the Gnulib says:
> 
> "Gnulib takes a different approach. Its components are intended
>  to be shared at the source level, rather than being a library
>  that gets built, installed, and linked against. Thus, there is
>  no distribution tarball; the idea is to copy files from Gnulib
>  into your own source tree."
> 
> So I recommend that you copy Gnulib's byteswap.h into your source
> tree, and to handle it as some kind of compatibility layer. Also,
> you might want to include other Gnulib files you are interested in.

The gnulib developers are currently working on a "libposix" feature that
would allow to install gnulib as a library:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2011-05/msg00608.html

Once a first version of this is released, it would make a very
interesting addition to Mingw-cross-env. By using an additional include
directory and linking with libposix one would get much of the POSIX API
with MinGW (and other systems).

Martin