Error using NetBeans and Windows

[Hooray]

another IDE-based option would be QtCreator, which is part of the Qt SDK and which also works on Windows with the MingW/gcc compiler suite. Haven't yet tried that, but if QtCreator knows about cmake, it should at least not require using a shell ...

[macnab]

I'll have a look at it.
If we are thinking about free software, I should imagine that the free versions of Microsoft Visual Studio are acceptable for GNU, seeing as there is no money involved.

[Hooray]

The only C++ level change that I can think of making at the moment is to have an FGCOMMAND that dynamically switches joystick buttons to repeatable so that controls.nas can do the switch based on the function called to give users more flexibility with button assignment. But that will have to wait until the dust has settles after the new release.

You could also just as well file a feature request - this part of FG is actively maintained by James and Stuart, and it sounds like a sensible and simple change, so the chances are not too bad for the release after 2.10.

But in case you want to look into this for yourself, make sure to check out the wiki tutorial on adding fgcommands: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Howto:Add_ne ... FlightGear

[macnab]

Have read the article, it is in my browser favourites. But does need core-code changes. Stuart did offer to do the necessary changeswhen the time is suitable.

[jimkberry]

I've been kinda half-following this thread, assuming it was important to you to use netbeans and gcc to build.

If that's not the case, though, and it would be ok to use cmake with Visual Studio 2010 Express then maybe I can lend a hand, since that's what I use.

It wasn't trivial to set up - especially getting to where I could use the debugger, but I have it working pretty well now and am certainly willing to lend a hand.

Interested? It would involve starting from scratch, I suspect.

-jim

[macnab]

The idea was to get the wiki finished to show how to compile FG with free tools only. It is complete for Linux.

certainly willing to lend a hand.

Maybe look at this http://wiki.flightgear.org/Building_using_CMake_-_Windows and compare with what you have done and see if it needs any changes/improvements. Although that was written for MinGW, but it is the CMake part which causes problems, not the C compiler.

[Hooray]

There's a free MSVC version available (Express) and the wiki should have details concerning the installation/setup.
I don't insist on our tools being "open source", but obviously it makes sense to document "free tools" (even just "freeware"), because we cannot expect our users to have access to commercial tools.

I really would not want to spend any money on tools required to build a piece of OSS.

Overall, I would prefer finding a cross-platform "solution" to largely automate building for people.
Which is why I previously brought up the idea to use virtualization/contianers to distribute a pre-created development environment for FG.
The download & compile script is great, but it's Linux specific - and only works for Debian-based distros.

In fact, Eclipse's support for "workspace" configs is more advanced than NetBeans workspaces.
Basically, I have been looking for a way to set up things and then allows others to easily download and install the whole shebang.
We are not quite there yet, but having such a thing would obviously be great and lower the entry barrier significantly.

The build server is obviously also useful, but it's not configured to allow arbitrary users to build their own custom/modified fgfs binaries.

[jimkberry]

The idea was to get the wiki finished to show how to compile FG with free tools only.

VC++ Express is absolutely free. I have even released commercial projects that used it.

It is not, of course, open-source, but that's a different question.

Do understand, I am no MS fanboy, but I have always found mingw to, well... just be a lot harder to make work in practice.

(While not completely relevant here, I still think it's interesting that for the last substantial project where I used VC++ Express - a game for National Geographic - I evaluated using the non-free versions as cost was not an issue - and found no advantage to them.)

No problem, though - just though I'd see if I could help.

-jim

[macnab]

The problem with MSVC Express is that the 2008 version is 750MB.

[Hooray]

ah, right your bandwidth bottleneck ... forgot about that one!
(at the least the IDE would be included then ...)

Also, not sure if 2008 is still recommended/supported even ?

[macnab]

Checked in Wikipedia. You can no longer download 2005 version, but support will be available until 2015.

[Hooray]

You can no longer download 2005 version

ISO: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=57034
IMG: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=54766

(still ~450-500MB, so your call)

You're welcome

Do understand, I am no MS fanboy, but I have always found mingw to, well... just be a lot harder to make work in practice.

Actually, most of our Windows-based core developers also happen to use MSVC++ Express. I believe that even the unix-based CI/build server runs MSVC++ Express - just inside a Windows VM.

And I have to agree that building cross platform software on Linux using MingW is really very painful indeed.
And obviously on Windows, IDE support is much better with MSVC++

EDIT (several hours later): I have meanwhile tried to use MingW to build FG from scratch ... and the "vanilla" source trees of SG/FG don't even build using MingW, they need to be fixed/patched (minor stuff mostly). Also, I had to disable sound support in SimGear, because of OpenAL issues (FindOpenAL doesn't currently support libOpenAL32 apparently)