Re: Adding external libraries to Octave

[John W. Eaton]

On 5/12/20 12:08 PM, Abdallah Elshamy wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> My GSoC project [1] requires the external library RapidJSON [2] which is 
> a header-only library. So, I was searching about how to add libraries to 
> Octave. I think that one way to do this is to put the library in a 
> suitable place inside "liboctave" folder and modifying and/or creating 
> the required "module.mk <http://module.mk>" files. Am I on the right 
> track here? Please let me know.
>
> Another option that was suggested by my mentor (Mr. Kai Torben Ohlhus) 
> is to modify the "bootstrap" script so that it fetches the latest 
> version of the library online and integrates it during building.
>
> I would like to know your evaluation of both methods and if you have any 
> suitable alternatives.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Abdallah
>
>
> [1] https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/projects/#6263027378159616
> [2] https://rapidjson.org/

It looks like rapidjson is packaged for Debian (for example) so why not 
just check for it like other dependencies?  If it is not installed, then 
the user should do that first, before building.  Same as for other 
dependencies.

I don't think we should be distributing the header files as part of 
Octave, so there should be no reason to add it to the liboctave directory.

jwe