Win32 Binary for the Thrift Compiler

[Hannes Baldursson <ha...@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

I'm trying Thrift out for the first time. I've had numerous issues with
building Thrift on Windows and I'm wondering if and how it should be done.

Although I didn't manage to build it on Windows I managed to build it on my
linux machine with some hickups so I don't really need the windows version.
I'm proud to say that I've already edited the linux installation page on the
wiki to address the issue I came across.

Would it be a good or bad idea to serve a binary package of the Windows
version for easier and better user-experience?

The thrift definition syntax is pretty straightforward but I'm having some
issues on how to use the generated files. Oh and btw, is it not possible to
create a PHP server?

I might ask, why is there little to none documentation on thrift? I will try
my best as I learn to add every random info into the wiki and encourage you
all to do the same.

Can some one tell me where to start?

Re: Win32 Binary for the Thrift Compiler

[Hannes Baldursson <ha...@gmail.com>]

>
> The Thrift *compiler* can be built on Windows, with the aid of Cygwin
> and/or MinGW.  There is some documentation on how to do this on the wiki,
> but given your next comment I'll assume you followed it.  Can you post any
> specific errors you encountered?


It didn't go that far. It took me a lot of time to figure out how to setup
and use MinGW and just gave up. Didn't matter for me anyway, I built it on
my linux machine and it generates the same code and will eventually use it
as my primary workstation.

I would like to see binaries distributed eventually.  At my company, we
> distribute Thrift internally via a Windows setup file after building.  If
> Thrift
> begins distributing binaries, perhaps the NSIS script would be useful?


A NSIS script would be awesome! But a .zip file could also do the trick. I
just don't think it's user-frendly to be required to build it from source.
It's just not worth the  hassle to install MinGW or Cygwin and the other
required toolkits just to build it when it could be easy as point-and-click.
On the other hand it doesn't matter if you use the GNU win32 toolkit all the
time...

I personally found it useful to begin with the tutorial and then read the
> Facebook contrib files and the Hbase API.
>
I'll check it out!

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Hannes Baldursson

Re: Win32 Binary for the Thrift Compiler

[Ted Dunning <te...@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 8:41 PM, Michael Greene <mi...@gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> I personally found it useful to begin with the tutorial and then read the
> Facebook contrib files and the Hbase API.
>

Yeah... that was good, but it would still have been a help to have much,
much more than that.

The white paper was also helpful to me.

-- 
ted

Re: Win32 Binary for the Thrift Compiler

[Michael Greene <mi...@gmail.com>]

Hi Hannes, replies inline:

> I'm trying Thrift out for the first time. I've had numerous issues with
> building Thrift on Windows and I'm wondering if and how it should be done.

The Thrift *compiler* can be built on Windows, with the aid of Cygwin
and/or MinGW.  There is some documentation on how to do this on the wiki,
but given your next comment I'll assume you followed it.  Can you post any
specific errors you encountered?

> Would it be a good or bad idea to serve a binary package of the Windows
> version for easier and better user-experience?

I would like to see binaries distributed eventually.  At my company, we
distribute Thrift internally via a Windows setup file after building.  If Thrift
begins distributing binaries, perhaps the NSIS script would be useful?

> Can some one tell me where to start?

I personally found it useful to begin with the tutorial and then read the
Facebook contrib files and the Hbase API.

- Michael Greene

Re: Win32 Binary for the Thrift Compiler

[Hannes Baldursson <ha...@gmail.com>]

>
> Three cheers for people who edit the wiki on their first try with the
> system!!!


Thanks!

I've already  created a few new pages:
http://wiki.apache.org/thrift/GettingUbuntuPackages
http://wiki.apache.org/thrift/ThriftUsageC%23

And added some info where it belongs. It helps me to learn too!

Re: Win32 Binary for the Thrift Compiler

[Ted Dunning <te...@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 8:19 PM, Hannes Baldursson <ha...@gmail.com>wrote:

>
> I might ask, why is there little to none documentation on thrift? I will
> try
> my best as I learn to add every random info into the wiki and encourage you
> all to do the same.
>

The real reason is because all of us are not as good about contributing back
as you seem to be.

Three cheers for people who edit the wiki on their first try with the
system!!!

-- 
ted