Importing autotools projects

[nowhere]

Hi folks,

I'm currently trying to get some programs based on ogre built on win32, and thanks to code::blocks ogre finally builds on a Free compiler there.

I decided to use code::blocks to build the other libs, too, but of course those don't have project files yet. Is there a quick way to import an autotools based project into code::blocks?

If not, what are the speedbumps I have to watch out for when including all needed files myself, including e.g. subdirs?

Thanks in advance,
Kai

[mandrav]

I decided to use code::blocks to build the other libs, too, but of course those don't have project files yet

Can you name those libs?
Note that if they have MS project files, you can import them.

Is there a quick way to import an autotools based project into code::blocks?

Not at this time...

If not, what are the speedbumps I have to watch out for when including all needed files myself, including e.g. subdirs?

This is very project-specific. If you mention what project you 're interested on, I might be able to help you.

Welcome
Yiannis.

[nowhere]

Can you name those libs?

Well, it's sigc++-2.0, Atlas-C++, wfmath-0.3, and eris-1.3.3, the latter three being project-internal libs.

But if you could, say, walk me through on doing it for sigc++, I'm sure I'll be able to transfer the knowledge to my own libs.
We won't have any ms project files, this is a pretty linux based project.

Cheers,
Kai

[mandrav]

We won't have any ms project files, this is a pretty linux based project.

I 'm not saying that you should create MS project files. I 'm saying that if the libs you 're after provide MS project files, you can import them easily.
As is the case with libsigc++:

I downloaded it and it has a .vcproj file.
Imported it.
I just had to add two directories in the compiler's search path. ("." and "..")
Built it in Debug and Release configurations without problems

Feel free to ask anything.

HTH,
Yiannis.

[nowhere]

I 'm not saying that you should create MS project files. I 'm saying that if the libs you 're after provide MS project files, you can import them easily.

No, that's actually not what I meant. What I wanted to say is that it's unlikely there are any MS project files for our own libs.
Anyhow, let's ignore sigc++ then.

Let's take Atlas-C++. (You can find it at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11799&package_id=132539 if you want to have a look at it yourself.)

I have the basic dir, let's call it / for now. It has a subdir called Atlas that contains all the source files. Different parts of this library are  in subdirectories under Atlas. What the autotools based build does it to compile all the code in the subdirs, link it it static libs and link those libs together to form a shared lib in /Atlas. My plan for win32 would be to build a static lib, as there's no dll export code in the atlas sources.

How would I get a project for this?

Cheers,
Kai

[mandrav]

Here's what I did, in less than 5 minutes:
(Path / will mean the atlas base dir)

• Downloaded atlas 0.5.9.2 from your link and uncompressed it
• Created new empty project and saved it inside the atlas dir (/)
• Edited project options to adjust the output type (set it to static lib instead of GUI executable)
• Added all files of interest in project (all files under /Atlas and its subdirs)
• Hit Compile
• Got error "No such file or directory". It couldn't locate "#include <Atlas/Bridge.h>"
• Added base dir (/) in compiler search dirs
• Hit Compile again
• All done [/list:u]
  
  Actually it won't always be this easy. Some times you might need to find and set some -D macros, or add some compiler/linker search dirs.
  But, generally, that is how you should go for projects that don't offer any MS project files. I 'm talking about MS project files, because if they are provided, importing them will give you a nice base project even if it still needs some tweaking.
  
  If you need any more help, just ask
  Yiannis.