[Python-Dev] FW: [issue2513] 64bit cross compilation on windows

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> Currently, the "official" (by way of being de-facto) directory structure for
> a build tree is 'PCBuild/.' for x86 builds and 'PCBuild/amd64' for x64
> platforms.  I believe this might cause problems for people trying to port
> their applications to 64bit platforms.  My proposal is that we change this
> subtly - that both 'PCBuild/x86', and 'PCBuild/amd64' exist, while
> 'PCBuild/.' is always the 'native' platform - ie, that 'PCBuild/.' be a copy
> of one of the platform subdirectories.

Can you explain what you mean by "native platform"? I usually perform
cross-builds for amd64, so would then this directory remain empty?

> The rationale is fairly simple: I'm quite certain that this new directory
> layout will break existing "native only" build processes (ie, those that
> aren't aware of cross-compilation).  I'm quite certain that Mozilla will
> break, for example, and no cross-compilation process exists that I am aware
> of.  Existing build tools already know about the PCBuild directory, and are
> focused almost exclusively towards native compilation - all such tools on
> non-x86 platforms are currently broken.

The reverse may also be true: some tools may expect PCbuild to contain
always x86 binaries, even on AMD64 - as they don't support non-x86 at
all. Those tools might break if PCbuild suddenly starts containing
AMD64 binaries.

If this is all about *just* Mozilla, then I'd be much more in favour
than if it was for some theoretical package. So if Mozilla builds with
that kind of setup, and works correctly - go for it. If you have to
fix Mozilla anyway, consider fixing it so it looks in the amd64
directory.

Regards,
Martin