Re: C# support for automake

[Simon Josefsson]

Bruno Haible <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi,
>
> At least two GNU packages (gettext and libidn) now have parts of their
> source code written in C#. Simon Josefsson, author of libidn, suggests
> that C# support be added to automake. Let me here present the basic facts
> about C# compilation, and a few macros and scripts that are in use in
> GNU gettext for a few years and that make be useful in their solution.

Thanks for doing this!  I read your e-mail, and agree with everything.

It may be useful to discuss DLL naming.  I noted that gettext call the
generated DLL 'GNU.Gettext.dll'.  Should we encourage a 'GNU.'
prefix?  Should we encourage mixed upper/lower case?

In Libidn I used 'Libidn.dll', but I think 'libidn.dll' might be
simpler.  Is there a tradition in Windows to use mixed case DLL
filenames?

Another minor comment:

>    Also, a variable CSHARPCOMPFLAGS should be defined, with default value
>    "-O -g".
>
>       CSHARPCOMPFLAGS = @CSHARPCOMPFLAGS@
...
>   - Target "clean" should remove foobar.dll.

Adding '-g' make the Mono compiler create files called foo.dll.mdb.
So the "clean" target should probably remove them too.  I didn't want
to bother cleaning up unrelated files, so in libidn I use
"CSHARPCOMPFLAGS = " (i.e., empty).  Once integrated in automake, I'll
of course use the defaults, which I agree should be -O -g to match C.

Thanks,
Simon