[Zlib-devel] Project files in the zlib distro

[Cosmin Truta]

Hi,

I would like to propose the addition of a "projects" directory inside
the zlib distribution. The purpose is to store project files coming from
various integrated environments (IDE).

The reason to put project files into a separate directory, rather than
the directory of the platform on which the IDE is running, is that many
IDE's are cross-platform. For example: Borland C++ (DOS/Windows/Unix),
RHIDE (DOS/Windows/Unix), Eclipse (many platforms), etc. Even if a
certain IDE is known to run on a single platform, the project files
could be used on a newer IDE version, that runs on a different platform;
e.g. Borland IDE's have such a history.

If we impose the restriction that the binaries built by the projects
should be entirely compatible to those built by the existing makefiles,
then these projects may be even used to provide official builds.


Simon-Pierre Cadieux and I have worked on a set of project files for
MS Visual C++ 6.0, that build zlib exactly as win32/Makefile.msc, and
provide all the build options (static lib or DLL, with or without ASM,
with or without debugging info) only at one or two clicks away from each
other. Although there is already a project for Visual C++ in
contrib/vstudio, that one has to stay in place, because it adds the
extra minizip functionality.


I prepared an archive, which is available at:

  http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~cosmin/compr/zlib/zlib-1.2.1.f-cos2.tar.gz

Have a look at the file projects/README.projects.

In addition to the projects dir, the archive contains modifications
which address the discussions that took place on zlib-devel since the
release of 1.2.1, including Glenn's last email about Z_PREFIX and
Gilles' latest updates to minizip, but excluding the configure patch
submitted by Mark Brown. The change log entries are there as well. There
are small code changes, but no change in semantics. The compiled code of
zlib-1.2.1.f-cos2 is identical to the compiled code of 1.2.1.1.


(If you wonder where's zlib-1.2.1.f-cos1 - that was an interim bundle,
announced on the png-implement list but not on zlib-devel, and which is
superseded, obviously, by 1.2.1.f-cos2.)


Best regards,
Cosmin