25 replies to this topic

[PT_Dreamer]

If you are an experienced developer then this thread is not for you. On the other hand if you are just a curious person who likes to code for fun maybe the next few lines might be of some use for you. They are the result of mistakes I made while developing a GCS plugin.

OpenPilot GCS aims to be cross platform app, we would expect that using QT as a development environment would be sufficient to achieve this goal.

However if you are like me, and windows is still your OS of choice you have to be careful, windows is not a case sensitive system regarding file and folder names. It is better just using lower case, it can avoid lots of problems. If you don’t, you will have no warranties that your code will compile under Linux.

When committing code you should do a clean compile under at least windows and linux to make sure it works on both systems. I use a Ubuntu virtual machine on a windows 7 host, and code compiles faster on the VM! Windows haters don’t laugh…

Be sure you make SVN updates often, it can save you the trouble of having to deal with conflicts.

Regarding coding standards they should be used from the very beginning, I’m Portuguese, we tend to do it first and read the instruction later, that’s why my code is so messy.

Hope the mistakes I made will help others avoiding them!


Jose

[Julien]

Jose, interesting post, that would make a good Wiki topic.

For cross platform compilation issues, I would also add:
- Always use slash '/', to separate directories for instance in #include, back-slash are common on Windows, but Linux doesn't understand them. When it comes to applicative code, you can also use Qt abstraction (see QDir)
- Windows needs a compiler directive to import/export classes to a DLL, that's why we have XXX_EXPORT in front of classes. Linux doesn't need that so it's easy to forget them.

[dankers]

Noce post Jose! I also like micro commits as from experience it can save a lot of hassle with conflicts especially as we are still fairly early in development.

I'm going to add a suggestion from PeterG here as well which I think is a great idea. We should make SVN commit comments reflect what part they are committing to i.e. GCS/Core or PiOS/I2C or GCS/Dials etc. Additionally if you remember the first part of the comment should be the Jira issue number if one exists.  

If you add the Jira issue number then Jira will add the SVN commits to the issue, for example: OP-36

Click on the Subversion Commits tab of that issue you will see the commits related to it. Additionally, this is linked this with our WebSVN (just like the forums are) so clicking on on a file will take you to that revision of the WebSVN to see what changed.

An example of a good SVN commit comment would be:

OP-44 GCS/Sound: Create initial plugin.

Its just a suggestion, it is not set in stone and I know people are busy and will forget etc, its just that some of the GCS devs are not so interested in PiOS or the firmware and likely the other way around as well.

[CheBuzz]

dankers, on 11 April 2010 - 08:22 PM, said:

Additionally if you remember the first part of the comment should be the Jira issue number if one exists.  

If you add the Jira issue number then Jira will add the SVN commits to the issue, for example: OP-36

Wow, I didn't know that.  I learned something knew today and will remember that for all my future commits.

[PT_Dreamer]

dankers, on 11 April 2010 - 08:22 PM, said:

Noce post Jose! I also like micro commits as from experience it can save a lot of hassle with conflicts especially as we are still fairly early in development.

I'm going to add a suggestion from PeterG here as well which I think is a great idea. We should make SVN commit comments reflect what part they are committing to i.e. GCS/Core or PiOS/I2C or GCS/Dials etc. Additionally if you remember the first part of the comment should be the Jira issue number if one exists.  

If you add the Jira issue number then Jira will add the SVN commits to the issue, for example: OP-36

Click on the Subversion Commits tab of that issue you will see the commits related to it. Additionally, this is linked this with our WebSVN (just like the forums are) so clicking on on a file will take you to that revision of the WebSVN to see what changed.

An example of a good SVN commit comment would be:

OP-44 GCS/Sound: Create initial plugin.

Its just a suggestion, it is not set in stone and I know people are busy and will forget etc, its just that some of the GCS devs are not so interested in PiOS or the firmware and likely the other way around as well.

If you are not regretting having me granted write permission by now , I promise I will document my next commits in accordance to your suggested format.

The problem was that I was to eager to commit my code and see it part of the project, that I committed it before testing on Linux.

When I did try to compile it and saw it didn't, I was so ashamed that started a fix and commit rampage, completely disregarding documentation.

I'm thinking about passing some of this thread's information to the plugin developing Wiki page. At least for me it will be a constant reminder of mistakes I made and should not do again!

Now that I finished fustigating my self I think that even with proper documentation things could be better if the forum had two SVN commit threads. I don't know if this is possible but it would be nice I think.

Changing the subject slightly, has anyone been developing in Mac OS? here in Portugal the percentage of Jobs OS users is very small, however being this a Transcontinental project (at least four by now) and knowing that globally Mac OS as a 5,9% share against Linux's 1,14% (source wikipedia), I think that this system should not be neglected.

Jose

[Reddog]

I tried to compile the GCS on a Mac last night using the instructions on the wiki and it failed, so it does not seem to compile at all for Mac users yet.

[PeterG]

Not surprising as we don't seem to have any developers using Mac yet. It shouldn't be too difficult to get it to work though. Where does the compile fail?

[Reddog]

Running build steps for project openpilotgcs...
Configuration unchanged, skipping QMake step.
Could not find make command: make in the build environment
Error while building project openpilotgcs
When executing build step 'Make'
Canceled build.

[Reddog]

Running build steps for project openpilotgcs...
Starting: /usr/bin/qmake /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/openpilotgcs.pro -spec macx-g++ -r
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/src.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/libs.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qtconcurrent/qtconcurrent.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qtconcurrent]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/aggregation/aggregation.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/aggregation]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/extensionsystem/extensionsystem.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/extensionsystem]
/Developer/Tools/Qt/rcc: File does not exist '../../../../src/libs/extensionsystem/pluginview.qrc'
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qmapcontrol/qmapcontrol.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qmapcontrol]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qmapcontrol/src/src.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qmapcontrol/src]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qwt/qwt.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qwt]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qwt/src/src.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qwt/src]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qextserialport/qextserialport.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qextserialport]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qextserialport/src/src.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qextserialport/src]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/utils/utils.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/utils]
/Developer/Tools/Qt/rcc: File does not exist '../../../../src/libs/utils/utils.qrc'
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/glc_lib/glc_lib.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/glc_lib]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qymodem/qymodem.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qymodem]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/qymodem/src/src.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/qymodem/src]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/libqxt/libqxt.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/libqxt]
Project MESSAGE: building core module
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/libs/libqxt/src/core/core.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/libs/libqxt/src/core]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/app/app.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/app]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/plugins.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/coreplugin/coreplugin.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/coreplugin]
/Developer/Tools/Qt/rcc: File does not exist '../../../../src/plugins/coreplugin/core.qrc'
/Developer/Tools/Qt/rcc: File does not exist '../../../../src/plugins/coreplugin/fancyactionbar.qrc'
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/welcome/welcome.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/welcome]
/Developer/Tools/Qt/rcc: File does not exist '../../../../src/plugins/welcome/welcome.qrc'
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/rawhid/rawhid.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/rawhid]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/serialconnection/serialconnection.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/serialconnection]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/uavobjects/uavobjects.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/uavobjects]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/uavtalk/uavtalk.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/uavtalk]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/emptygadget/emptygadget.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/emptygadget]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/map/map.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/map]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/scope/scope.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/scope]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/modelview/modelview.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/modelview]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/uavobjectbrowser/uavobjectbrowser.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/uavobjectbrowser]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/uploader/uploader.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/uploader]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/airspeed/airspeed.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/airspeed]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/lineardial/lineardial.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/lineardial]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/systemhealth/systemhealth.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/systemhealth]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/src/plugins/config/config.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/src/plugins/config]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/share/share.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/share]
Reading /Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/share/openpilotgcs/translations/translations.pro [/Users/nathanaherne/OpenPilot/ground/Build/share/openpilotgcs/translations]
WARNING: Cannot open substitute for input '../../../../share/openpilotgcs/translations/extract-mimetypes.xq.in'
Exited with code 0.

[PeterG]

The last post doesn't actually give an error message, the first complains about not finding the command 'make'. Did you do something in between or?

[Reddog]

Ok so the first post is running the project and the second is building the project.

[PeterG]

Do you have 'make' installed, ie can you execute the command 'make' in a shell? If not, you might need to install it first.

http://stackoverflow...ing-make-on-osx

[Reddog]

Thanks for the heads up PeterG, I should have picked that up. To save me downloading the Apple Developers tools, I moved to Linux.

I am still getting compile errors and as I have no experience with QT and I am a pretty crappy developer, I will leave it to the Pros (I am getting some 6000 build errors as of right now).

[PeterG]

For (Ubuntu) Linux you can look at this page:

http://wiki.openpilo...opment_on_Linux

[dankers]

Reddog, on 30 May 2010 - 02:37 PM, said:

(I am getting some 6000 build errors as of right now).

That would only be normal if I had committed code and I haven't.

[Bani Greyling]

PT_Dreamer, on 11 April 2010 - 07:13 PM, said:

When committing code you should do a clean compile under at least windows and linux to make sure it works on both systems. I use a Ubuntu virtual machine on a windows 7 host, and code compiles faster on the VM! Windows haters don’t laugh…

How do you do that? Commit in Windows and update & compile under Linux, or do you share a workspace using shared folders? The latter seem problematic.  

[dankers]

Both would work but you need to build outside the tree for the latter. I share the SVN source with a shared folder via virtual box and only commit / update on Windows for now.

I only did this yesterday but it does work.

In my svn ground folder I have a Build director and and a buildlin directory.

 build.png   28.62K   71 downloads

In a shell on Linux I just run:

cd buildlin
qmake ../openpilotgcs.pro
make

On a Windows CMD prompt I run:

cd Build
qmake ../openpilotgcs.pro
mingw32-make

There might be a better way? But this works for me.

Each build is contained to their respective build directories but built from the same source. Very shortly I will switch this around and use Linux as my main dev OS and run WinXP in a VM to test Windows.

Bani Greyling, on 06 June 2010 - 08:12 AM, said:

How do you do that? Commit in Windows and update & compile under Linux, or do you share a workspace using shared folders? The latter seem problematic.  

[Bani Greyling]

I tried that, but failed

Output from build:
g++ -Wl,-z,origin '-Wl,-rpath,$ORIGIN/../lib/openpilotgcs' -shared -Wl,-soname,libQtConcurrent.so.1 -o libQtConcurrent.so.1.0.0 .obj/debug-shared/moc_multitask.o -L/usr/lib -L/home/bani/code/win_openpilot/ground/buildlin/lib/openpilotgcs -lQtTest -lQtGui -lQtCore -lpthread
ln -s libQtConcurrent.so.1.0.0 libQtConcurrent.so
ln: creating symbolic link `libQtConcurrent.so': Operation not permitted

Maybe it fails to create symbolic link on NTFS (or the vboxsf driver used to mount VirtualBox shared folder)

Any ideas?

don't fuss...it is a virtualbox issue...

[CheBuzz]

Other ideas are:

rsync
Shared network folder
svn can also create a patch file

[dankers]

Just a small addition, if you have multiple cores, rather than running make (or mingw32-make) you can try using jom instead.

dankers, on 06 June 2010 - 08:38 AM, said:

Both would work but you need to build outside the tree for the latter. I share the SVN source with a shared folder via virtual box and only commit / update on Windows for now.

I only did this yesterday but it does work.

In my svn ground folder I have a Build director and and a buildlin directory.

build.png

In a shell on Linux I just run:

cd buildlin
qmake ../openpilotgcs.pro
make

On a Windows CMD prompt I run:

cd Build
qmake ../openpilotgcs.pro
mingw32-make

There might be a better way? But this works for me.

Each build is contained to their respective build directories but built from the same source. Very shortly I will switch this around and use Linux as my main dev OS and run WinXP in a VM to test Windows.