Re: [AD] Don't use Devpaks

[Thomas Fjellstrom <thomas@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun 08 May 2016 12:32:05 PM Andrew Robinson wrote:
> Dev-Cpp is just a compiler, so any program written in standard C or C++ will
> work with it. The Allegro5 devpak is written for C++, which is not a
> problem, but the Allegro project website says that the Allegro5 libraries
> are written in C, not C++, so whoever is writing these Allegro5 devpaks, is
> only providing a C++ version. Sounds like someone needs to make an Allegro5
> devpak that is written for C. Is there anyone out there in the community
> that is willing to do that, or is the Allegro community dying?

Dev-Cpp is actually just an IDE, it sometimes comes bundled with Mingw32 
(which is a compiler), but its pretty ancient now. Whoever maintains the 
devpak could talk about it more, but i can't remember who that is, I don't 
believe it's officially supported, unlike the MSVC, and MSYS packages. I had 
thought there was a generic Mingw package too, not 100% certain about that 
mind you.

> Using MSYS2 to install a Linux environment in Windows so you can use a Linux
> compiler is a joke. This needs to be done right and using Dev-Cpp was the
> right way to do it. If your best advice is "you are on your own", then
> Allegro is a dead project or it needs to be.

Allegro 4 is pretty much dead now. Allegro 5 though is not, and has working 
packages for MSVC, MSYS, and MingW iirc.

> On 5/8/2016 at 11:38 AM, SiegeLord <siegelordex@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >Allegro 5 isn't compatible in any way with Allegro 4, which is why there
> >are several Devpak versions of it (AGUP in particular is only for
> >Allegro 4 as you've discovered). Allegro 4 isn't at all supported these
> >days, so if you opt to use it, you're a bit on your own.
> >
> >In general, though, DevCpp hasn't really been good for a long time now.
> >I would suggest you not use it. We do have a link to the Devpacks in the
> >http://liballeg.org/download.html#windows section, but hopefully the
> >'Unofficial' should be enough to somewhat discourage you from using them.
> >
> >These days the easiest way to use Allegro (5) from Windows is via MSVC,
> >by following this tutorial:
> >https://wiki.allegro.cc/index.php?title=Windows,_Visual_Studio_2015_and_Nug
> >et_Allegro_5
> >
> >There isn't an up-to-date tutorial for non-MSVC IDEs and compilers, but
> >that is an option too (we provide binaries for MSYS2, which you could
> >get working with Code::Blocks, if you wanted to).
> >
> >-SL
> >
> >On 05/08/2016 10:33 AM, Andrew Robinson wrote:
> >> I just started using Dev-Cpp. I like the fact that it is portable but
> >> the claim that by using the Devpaks are a good thing because even a
> >> beginner could run projects from them is not true. People need to be
> >> aware of this.
> >> I tried the Allegro Devpaks but they don't work. For example, the
> >> Allegro5 Devpak installs, but when I try also installing the Allegro GUI
> >> Un-uglification Project Devpak, it refuses to install because it says I
> >> don't have the Allegro Devpak installed. This is not a problem a
> >> beginner could resolve. The internal naming conventions are the problem,
> >> so the Allegro5 Devpak is internally named as Allegro5 instead of
> >> Allegro. Bad move.
> >> So then I uninstalled Allegro5 and installed the Allegro4.4.2 Devpak.
> >> Okay, now the Allegro GUI Un-uglification Project Devpak installs, so
> >> now onto the next problem. Allegro4.4.2 won't compile. Why not? Well I
> >> want to compile a 32-bit program but the compile log says Allegro4.4.2
> >> isn't compatible with 64-bit. Shit! That's when I realize that none of
> >> the Devpaks tell me if they are 32-bit or 64-bit, I would have to try
> >> each one, one at a time, and see if any of the them is a 32-bit version.
> >> But wait! There is more! Before doing that, I tried compiling my project
> >> as a 64-bit project anyways, and guess what? It doesn't work! Why not?
> >> At first I couldn't tell, but then I noticed that the compiler was
> >> looking for a file named "lallegro-4.2.2-monolith-mt" but in the lib
> >> directory installed by the Devpak, the file is named
> >> "liballegro-4.2.2-monolith-mt". Do you think a beginner is going to
> >> solve that problem?
> >> All this tells me is that the Devpaks are a joke. They aren't documented
> >> very well. They need a comment section so people can give feedback on
> >> whether they really work, or whether they use the proper naming
> >> convention (i.e. -- "lib" instead of "l"), and so on. Because there is
> >> no feedback or control, I can't trust Devpaks. People can put anything
> >> they want in it, which just makes programming all the more difficult
> >> when you run into problems. And good luck if you want to upgrade your
> >> project from version 4.2.2 to 4.2.3, since the libs and headers could
> >> have anything in them, meaning you have no guarantee of compatibility.
> >> I hope the allegro.cc instructions for compiling the Allegro
> >> binaries/libraries for yourself is complete and works, because if they
> >> aren't, I'm not going to be using Allegro.
> >> You need to recommend that Devpaks are not to be trusted and you should
> >> not use them ... unless you know how to fix the numerous problems that
> >> Devpaks have presented.
> >> 
> >> 
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> 
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-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
thomas@xxxxxxxxxx