WIN32 compilation, UML Sequence Diagrams and Inheritance arrows and the spirit of GNU software.

[James Michael DuPont <mdupont777 yahoo com>]

Dear All,

I have been very frustrated multiple times by the mess of the win32
build environment, and I have to say that it is time to make some
improvements here.

I also belive that the team also are going to have to review their
responsibilities as developers when releasing Executables under the G
PL.

I have been testing dia 0.90 uml under windows.
DIA has a lot of potential, and have not given up on using it (yet). 

I still have gotten *no* answers from my requests for help compiling
under windows32. This is my last try before going crazy!

It cannot be that you are distributing the executables, but not
the source code that can be used to build it. That is completly against
the GNU license! 

If there are a set of files and changes that are needed, please make
them available. If modules are needed, you have to say where they are
from and what patches are options are used to compile them.
That Is dictated by the GPL.

All I can find are broken links and people saying how little time they
have to help.

If you read the GPL [1]
>>3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on
it, >>under Section 2) in object code or executable form under
the terms of >>Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do
one of the >>following: 
>>a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding
machine-readable >>source code, which must be distributed under
the terms of Sections 1 >>and 2 above on a medium customarily
used for software interchange; >>or, 
The source code for the win32 is not being distributed in whole,
if all types of changes need to be made, or if the compilable source
code is not made available. 

Here is another quote from [1]
>>The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work
for >>making modifications to it. For an executable work,
complete source >>code means all the source code for all modules
it contains, plus any >>associated interface definition files,
plus the scripts used to >>control compilation and installation
of the executable. However, as a >>special exception, the source
code distributed need not include >>anything that is normally
distributed (in either source or binary >>form) with the major
components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the >>operating
system on which the executable runs, unless that component
>>itself accompanies the executable. 
So all the GNOME libs that are needed, which are not part
of the standard system, need to be made available. If you put the work
to compile them and maybe even had to modify the makefiles or such,
then you have to make those changes available under the GPL.

You might say that it is my problem to get all this put together,
but the "source" code includes all these parts.

Hans web page says here [2]:
>>I'm using MSVC 5.0 command line compiler as development
environment. >>All the win32 make and other files should be
available in gnome cvs. >>If not it would be a bug of mine. But
be warned: Dia on win32 is not >>yet ready to be build by
everyone.

>>There is almost no explanation on how to compile it and the
stuff may >>even not be complete or up to date. BTW: the sources
of released >>officially versions are here. 

>>BTW: If you don't understand what I'm talking about, you should
>>probably NOT even use DIA at the moment, because my spare time
does >>not permit to explain how computers do work ... 

Well if you distribute the executables, then it is your duty to make
the stuff complete and up to date. You cannot just put that on to me to
do.

Is there anyone who compiles this under windows? Is it possible that
you make some of this available? 

I think that is it not fair to keep this all to yourselves,
that is not part of the spirit of the GNU software. If you distribute
binaries, you have to make the sources available. Saying that you
cannot be bothered, and don't have time to talk to beginners is not
enough!

I have spent over 2 evenings, and 12 hours trying to get a set of dlls
and headers for the windows compilation together. I find it almost
impossible. Just getting the prerequisite dlls, lib and header versions
together is a nightmare! Many of the DLLS and programs available are
not compatible, I would like to build it all from source. But there
does not seem to be any way to get all the right versions together.

Would someone be kind enough to upload a snapshot of the environment
for compiling dia under windows? I would volunteer to make it into
something that is easier to use! Maybe a list of the versions of the
dlls that are needed, where they can be gotten from?

The next point is the UML sequence diagram : 
There does not seem to be a way to add activations to an UML object
lifetime.

Also the inheritance lines are hard to format, if you have lots of
subclasses, the arrowheads look funny, one pointing down, one pointing
up. it would nice to be able to make them point into the base class...
Any ideas?

Sorry to be such a complainer, but my nice requests have been ignored.
It is time that we make the win32 more publically available, and that 
more openness comes into this project.

Best regards,
Mike

References 
[1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
[2] http://hans.breuer.org/dia/default.htm

=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs
http://www.hotjobs.com