Building (or trying to) GnuCash on Windows

[John Ralls]

> On Nov 29, 2017, at 7:26 PM, Brian Davis <bitminer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I attempted to run the script at:
> 
> https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-on-windows
> 
> To create a build environment for GnuCash on Windows where it failed at:
> 
> Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
> Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
> 
> Boostrap GnuCash Development on Windows
> ---------------------------------------
> This script is intended for people that wish to develop GnuCash on Windows
> It will download and install the minimal set of tools
> to run a first build of the GnuCash sources.
> It will install
> - mingw-get, an msys shell and wget in c:\gcdev\mingw
> - git in c:\gcdev\git-1.9.4
> - a gnucash-on-windows git repository cloned from
>  git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-on-windows.git
>  into c:\gcdev\gnucash-on-windows.git
> - a GnuCash git repository cloned from
>  git://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash.git
>  into c:\gcdev\gnucash.git
> 
> Notes:
> * Components already found in the given locations
>  won't be touched. Instead the available versions
>  will be used in that case.
> * If the proposed locations don't suit you, you can
>  pass alternate locations as named parameters to this script.
>  For example to use c:\soft as base directory you can run this script as
>  bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\soft
>  Which parameters you can modify can be found near the beginning of this
> script.
> 
> Continue with the set up (Y/N) ? y
> Checking c:\gcdev\mingw\bin\mingw-get.exe... Found, no need to install
> Installing msys and wget... Success
> Checking c:\gcdev\git-1.9.4\bin\git.exe... Found, no need to install
> Checking if c:\gcdev\gnucash-on-windows.git
>         is a gnucash-on-windows git repository... Most likely ok, won't
> clone
> Checking if c:\gcdev\gnucash.git
>         is a GnuCash git repository... Not found
> Set up GnuCash git repository...
> Failed
> 
> *** ERROR ***
> Failed to set up GnuCash git repository.
> 
> Cannot continue until this has been resolved.
> 
> Pres enter to continue...
> 
> 
> Also FYI "Pres" is spelled "Press" also when running script with command
> line switch:
> 
> c:\projects\GnuCash>bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\projects\GnuCash
> 
> Gives the impression that:
> 
> If the proposed locations don't suit you, you can
>  pass alternate locations as named parameters to this script.
>  For example to use c:\soft as base directory you can run this script as
>  bootstrap_win_dev.vbs /GLOBAL_DIR:c:\soft
> 
> 
> is a complete lie as it still installs to c:\gcdev\
> 
> Thoughts?

Well, the first thought is don’t use that one, use setup-mingw64.ps1. The old mingw-classic scripts are for GnuCash 2.6 which has only a couple of releases left while the new mingw64 scripts (there are two more, buildserver/build_package.ps1 and bundle-mingw64.ps1) are for current and future development.

The second thought is that we discourage trying to actually develop on MSWindows. GnuCash is a Unix program that we port to windows and a Unix development environment is far more conducive to productive work. That might be less true if you're really fluent with mingw/mingw64/cygwin.

Third is that the mingw-classic script’s handling of parameters is annoyingly picky. It often takes me three or four tries to get right when I have to set up a new build environment. It does work when you finally figure out the right way to pass the parameters.

Regards,
John Ralls