Compile error

[robert-boulanger]

Node.cpp(68,18): error C2039: "runtime_error" is not a member of "std".

Solution:
#include <stdexcept>

in Node.cpp

[end2endzone]

Hi.
Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate it.

You are right, the include for std::runtime_error is missing.

However, I develop on Visual Studio 2010 and appveyor is building on Visual Studio 2015. Both do not complain about the missing include (which is why I did not catch this issue). The missing include is probably already included by another include in Node.cpp.

May I ask you a question about you development environment? I would like to know which platform or compiler are you using? Are you using Visual Studio Code or Mingw?

Most of the time, I get these kind of issues when building on Linux. The "official" include for a function is missing but Visual Studio somehow is including everything that is required through another included file.

[robert-boulanger]

Hi,

there was a visual studio code installed on the machine where I tried to build it, but I never use it.
Normally I have Mingw here and this is only used to compile python code via nuitka to native executables.
I just followed your build instructions, installed cmake and all the other dependencies.
However it's about 30 years I touched C the last time in a productive manner, whatever happened in meantime in the c world happened without me ;)

But I think its using the MSVC compiler, as you can see here:

-- Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.18362.0 to target Windows 10.0.19041.
-- The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.26.28806.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.26.28806.0
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.26.28801/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.26.28801/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done

Also this issue was fixed, I'm getting the next troubles.
As mentioned above, when following the build instructions, building shellanywhere now complains that it does not find tinyxml2_static.lib, and indeed there is only a tinyxml2.lib present. But maybe this has to do with this: leethomason/tinyxml2#588 and not with your build instructions of shellanywhere.

However, I just detected the shellanywhere project and wanted to test an idea for an application mockup/prototype and since there is no compiled binary available I had to jump in that cold water and tried to build it by myself, but as I told, I'm not from the windows c planet, so I feel a bit like an alien from outerspace here ;)

[end2endzone]

Hi.

Looking at your log sample, you seem to be using Visual Studio 2019 which I never tested. Maybe this was the reason for the missing include. Anyway, the issue is now fixed.

and since there is no compiled binary available...

The INSTALL.md documentation says that 'application does not provides pre-build binaries' which is incorrect. I created #68 to resolve this. Thanks for pointing that out. I am sorry. I hope that this poor documentation does not makes the ShellAnything experience too disappointing.

For your information, you can find compiled binaries in the project release page. The official latest release is version 0.4.0. You can also checkout the latest/nightly builds available on the appveyor which offers CI/CD service for Windows. If you see a vertical green line, it means the build was a success. Select the Platform: x64, then look in the Artifacts tab. For example, https://ci.appveyor.com/project/end2endzone/shellanything/build/job/9b8ovvjj8jdosnwe/artifacts. You will find 2 installers, one is a traditional "setup.exe" and the other is a more modern MSI. A portable version is also available. I recommend to use the setup.exe version because the MSI installer is less than 1 week old.

But maybe this has to do with this: leethomason/tinyxml2 #588 and not with your build instructions of shellanywhere

I think you are right. Looking at the file src/CMakeLists.txt, line 149, I think I have hardcoded the use of tinyxml2 static library (tinyxml2_static.lib). My appveyor's installation script install_tinyxml2.bat is also forcing to build tinyxml2 as a static library. Shame on me. I tend to forget that people may install dependencies in a different configuration than me.

I will try the proposed solution (below) and will let you know:

if (TARGET tinyxml2)
target_link_libraries(my_lib PRIVATE tinyxml2)
else()
target_link_libraries(my_lib PRIVATE tinyxml2_static)
endif()

As a side note, you can take a look at the build scripts used on appveyor. These scripts extract and build all dependencies under the build directory and sub directories. The binaries are not install "somewhere" on the system but only under the build directory. These might gave you hints on what is expected by ShellAnything CMake scripts.

[end2endzone]

I made the corrections that should allow you to compile ShellAnything with support for both tinyxml2 configurations. See the build log at https://ci.appveyor.com/project/end2endzone/shellanything/build/job/ad1angjey75ddxgy. The build on appveyor was not modified and still uses a static library.

However, for testing, I changed install_tinyxml2.bat, line 30 to -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON -DBUILD_STATIC_LIBS:BOOL=OFF. This made my local copy of tinyxml2 build as a shared library.

The proposed changes specified in the previous comment was implemented in fcf3f96 and I was able to compile with a shared library. If you also compiled the other dependencies (gtest, glog, rapidassist and win32clipboard) as static libraries, you should not run into issues.

Note that when building tinyxml2 as a shared library, the dll (tinyxml2d.dll in debug, tinyxml2.dll in release) is not copied in the output binary directory of ShellAnything. If you try to run/install ShellAnything or execute unit tests, you may run into the following error message:

---------------------------
shellanything_unittest-d.exe - System Error
---------------------------
The program can't start because tinyxml2d.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem. 
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

To solve this issue, you may do one of the following:

• Copy tinyxml2.dll manually into ShellAnything's output directory.
• Add the directory that contains tinyxml2.dll in your PATH environment variable.

I was expecting CMake to understand that tinyxml2 is a shared library and should be automatically packaged with the package installers or with the INSTALL target. I guess CMake is expecting users to use the PATH environment variable.
It is one of the reasons why I prefer to use static libraries (even of the binary output is bigger and that I won't get automatic tinyxml2 security updates and other stuff).

I also created #70 so that Win32Clipboard library would be merged into ShellAnything source code reducing the number of required dependencies by 1 but more importantly, getting rid of any issues about building Win32Clipboard in static or shared mode.

As a final note, I hope that you still have the will to keep going and try to build ShellAnything yourself. The feedback you are giving me is gold and I will do my best to provide support. I am also happy to make ShellAnything more available to others (and easier to build). Looking forward for your feedback.

[end2endzone]

Hi @robert-boulanger.

I have closed #68 and #70. I have also created a "one click build" script which should greatly simplify the process of building ShellAnything from scratch. You can take a look at the section Using the build scripts in INSTALL.md file. I hope this last step resolves the issue. Please close the issue if it is now resolved.

If you liked ShellAnything, consider leaving the project a star as it helps me a lot and motivates me to keep working on the project.

Again, thank you for the feedback.

[robert-boulanger]

Thanks so far, will have a look on this after my holidays.
So long...

[end2endzone]

Did you had time to look at the changes? Does it solves you issue? Also, the last issue related to milestone 0.5.0 will be resolved in a few days. You might want to have a look at the latest version.

[robert-boulanger]

Seems to work now.