[JDEV] Re: jabberd 1.4.3 release candidate again

[Frank Seesink]

Colin Bell wrote:

> Great News Frank
> 
> Now its time for the leechers who are not bright like you and are 
> incapable of compiling, to ask that infamous question. Where can we 
> download 1.4.3 for windows and the components ?

Hey Colin!

Well, looking at the website, Jabberd v1.4.3 is slated to be out this month.

As for downloading a Windows binary version of Jabberd with the modules, 
which is what I'm assuming you're after...
SHORT ANSWER:  I don't know.

LONG ANSWER:
I'll try and organize something, but last time I tried this (with 
v1.4.2), I ran into some issues, trying to make sure all the necessary 
files/etc. were included.  Basically, some modules worked, whereas 
others which required writing out files had issues when it came to 
creating directories/etc., an issue not seen when running under Cygwin 
proper.  All indications were that some pieces relied on something in 
the *nix underbelly provided by Cygwin...something I was obviously missing.

Then there's the proverbial legalities.  Can OpenSSL be included in 
binary form?  What restrictions exist, blah blah blah.  I'm not a lawyer 
(and I don't play one on TV either :-) ), so not sure if it's something 
that needs to be addressed before putting something together.

I also have yet to sit down and read up on installer creators like Inno 
Setup to figure out how to bundle things once I DO get the right files 
distilled out.  [As I feel more like a "doodler" in all this--haven't 
done serious coding probably since I was in grad school in CS--I have 
greater and greater respect for all the one-man/small operations out 
there.  The number of tools/languages/whatnot that you need to learn 
just to put a nice package together can be staggering.]

Honestly, not sure if/when that will happen.  Fasted way to get Jabberd 
up will be to build it from source.  Another option I'm looking at is 
building a proper Cygwin package.  From a user's perspective this would 
mean getting/installing Cygwin (www.cygwin.com) using its setup.exe, 
then simply selecting the "Jabberd" package to install.  End result: 
user runs Jabberd under Cygwin very similar to running under *nix.  This 
is how I got Jabberd working as it does.

For me, building a Cygwin package requires again time/reading to see how 
the Cygwin folks do that.  Jabberd requires GNU Pth, for example.  And I 
believe the Cygwin "philosophy" is that a Cygwin package should only 
rely on other Cygwin packages and never outside software, a rule broken 
for example by PostgreSQL for Cygwin up until just recently (another 
product I work with).  Up until a few months ago, Cygwin's PostgreSQL 
required a user to go download CygIPC, an ipc-daemon program that was 
NOT part of Cygwin's package list.  When PostgreSQL v7.3.4-2 was 
released, they finally brought ipc-daemon2 under the Cygwin umbrella and 
had PostgreSQL built against that, effectively getting PostgreSQL to 
follow "the Cygwin way."

Translation:  In order to build a Jabberd 1.4.3 Cygwin package, I will 
likely have to create a GNU Pth Cygwin package first, THEN create the 
Jabberd Cygwin package to rely on it.  This is a little more work.

At the very least, the changes coming in Jabberd 1.4.3 should make 
building Jabberd under Cygwin no more painful than it is under any other 
*nix OS.  And with Cygwin you get options like running 
PostgreSQL...which is my next goal:  integrating jabberd via xdb_sql 
with PostgreSQL.  I have the pieces compiled.  Now I just need to config 
everything to work together.

Anyway, if/when I get something more sophisticated done than just 
mucking with the source, I'll post here.