Getting started with development for Windows

• Aug 1, 2012 - 04:35

I followed the instructions for getting a development environment set up under Windows. I downloaded all the pieces, and successfully compiled. However I ran into three issues, which I think may be bugs.

1) In my source tree, I got a handful of directories that appear to be the result of malformed commands from the makefile. They have names like "-c" and "-DMAKE_BUILD_TYPE" and "'grep" and except for the "'grep" all seem to be command line arguments. I don't know if this means that some command failed to execute, or what. I ran a debug build several times, and an install build, and then a debuginstall build, while I was trying to figure out the following problem:

2) When I tried to run the exe, I got error messages about not being able to open certain files. This prevented the playback function from working. Eventually, I figured out that the problem with not opening files (which I verified did in fact exist) was that all the paths were UNIX-style paths, with forward slashes. When I went into the preferences, and changed my paths to use the Windows backslash, those error messages disappeared, and playback began working correctly.

3) Also when I ran the exe, I got messages about not finding the jack server, and the command it tried to use to start it was entirely incorrect, in addition to have forward slashes in the path. (Command = "C:/Program Files/Jack/jackd.exe") My path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Jack\jackd.exe. If I try to type this in on the command line, all I get is a usage message, so maybe there are command line options that are required? I think the "compiling for Windows" page in the developer's handbook should have a blurb about getting Jack to start. Clicking on jackd.exe doesn't seem to do it.


Comments

For Windows development, I use Qt SDK and I build, run and debug from within it, so I cannot really help you for 1) and 2).

3) is harmless: the jack server is pretty much useless under Windows; simply ignore the message. This has nothing to do with the sound not being available: play with "Edit | Preferences | I/O" and a working setup can usually be found; I have two Windows installations (under XP and under Win 7) and I get sound with both, without any Jack server.

HTH,

M.

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