[C++ Toolkit ANNOUNCE] Easy-build bundle of 3rd-party packages used by the NCBI C++ Toolkit

[Denis Vakatov]

     Easy-build bundle of 3rd-party packages used by the NCBI C++ Toolkit.


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Some parts of the C++ Toolkit (notably the GUI ones) just cannot be built
without 3rd-party libraries (such as FLTK), and other parts of the
Toolkit will work more efficiently or provide more functionality if some
3rd-party packages (such as BerkeleyDB which is used for local data cache and
for local data storage) are available.

To facilitate the building of these 3rd-party libraries, there is an archive
that bundles together source code of the 3rd-party packages, plus a MSVC++.NET
"solution" to build all (or any combination) of them:


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HOWTO:

1. Download the bundle from:
     ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/toolbox/ncbi_tools++/CURRENT/ThirdParty/ncbi_ThirdParty_win--Oct_02_2004.zip  (or *.exe)

2. Expand the archive (e.g. in "U:\").

3. Load this "solution" to MSVC++ .NET:
     U:\ncbi_ThirdParty_win--Oct_02_2004\third_party_libs.sln

4. Set up the needed configuration(s) (e.g. ReleaseDLL) and build project
   "-BUILD-ALL-" (or, you can build individual packages if you want to).

5. As a result, you will have the requested 3rd-party packages built and
   installed "NCBI-wise", meaning that you should now be able to use them
   to build the NCBI C++ Toolkit.

6. To "tune" the NCBI C++ Toolkit build framework to use the 3rd-party libs,
   replace in your C++ Toolkit tree:
     ncbi_cxx_win--Oct_02_2004\compilers\msvc710_prj\project_tree_builder.ini
   by (it assumes 3r-party libs built on "U:\", fix it you built it elsewhere):
     ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/toolbox/ncbi_tools++/CURRENT/ThirdParty/project_tree_builder.ini
   and then "-CONFIGURE-" the C++ Toolkit's solution.

!) If you see a lot of fatal build errors in the 3rd-party dependent NCBI
   projects, then make sure you really did built the 3rd-party libs for the
   configuration(s) you are trying to build the Toolkit with!


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PROBLEMS:
    Some 3rd-party dependent projects still won't build with this setup, may
    require some tweaking. This is mostly because the 3rd-party snapshot was
    done 2 months after the NCBI Oct-02 release, and there can be a couple
    of version skews. This should be fixed in the next NCBI C++ Toolkit
    release (planned for mid-end of November).
    There are also 3rd-party libs which we just cannot distribute (such as
    Sybase ones).	  


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Just FYI, the full list of the packages with the original versions, patches
and download URLs:

  ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/toolbox/ncbi_tools++/CURRENT/ThirdParty/package_list

We are also planning to compose a similar bundle of joy for UNIX.