Re: [ros-dev] ReactOS needs to be self-hostable!

[Hermès BÉLUSCA - MAÏTO]

Hi !

 

Today Sylvain and me achieved to compile some bits of ReactOS with RosBE 2.1.1. Contrary
to what happened with RosBE 2.1, the new RosBE version does not retrigger a full build
configuration each time one invokes “ninja”, even if the CMakeCCompiler.cmake and
CMakeCXXCompiler.cmake files are not created (at least in my case, because it seems that
Sylvain sees them). So that’s nice!

In other words I was able to fully compile the host-tools and e.g. compile the kernel, and
other things.

 

Originally I wanted to directly compile a bootcd, however one cannot compile correctly
“libusbd” (manual command: ninja libusbd) because dlltool.exe systematically wants to read
at address 0x0C000007, therefore inducing a page fault. I don’t know why, something on
ReactOS (or on dlltool) is broken, whatever… and therefore because of that no bootcd can
be created with GCC/RosBE yet. BUT, I repeat, one can compile other submodules. That’s a
big step!!

 

David Quintana and Giannis started to have a look at installing MSVC on ReactOS in order
to try to see whether it is possible to use MSVC on ReactOS for compiling itself. They
currently block on installing it properly without installing too much things (e.g. the
unneeded .net framework). So that they could use MSVC builds, and use WinDbg in ReactOS to
debug user-mode apps (after replacing ours (read: Wine’s) riched20.dll with Win2k3’s
one).

 

For my side I’ve already configured a build environment on ReactOS, with RosBE 2.1.1
installed on C:\RosBE, the ReactOS sources in D:\rossrc and the output build files going
into E:\rosbuild . I modified RosBE.cmd in order it to launch Far Manager in the current
directory (at the end of the build environment configuration) with the adequate command.
So that I’m able to browse the source files and view/edit them in the same (console)
window. By the way, commit 62500 http://svn.reactos.org/svn/reactos?view=revision
<http://svn.reactos.org/svn/reactos?view=revision&revision=62500>
&revision=62500 was my first one using SVN from RosBE in ReactOS :D

 

I could use Notepad++, version 6.5.x (in fact I use it on my host OS), however it hangs on
ReactOS when one quits it, and sometimes puts the CPU usage to 100% for whatever reason
(this problem also happens when trying to play with the “Open” dialog box when trying to
open a file in Notepad++).

 

I personally think we can start programming ReactOS *inside* ReactOS, i.e. beginning to
self-host ourselves, because globally we are in better shape than Microsoft was when they
started to self-host NT: before their devs were developing NT on OS/2, and after their
first shift to full NT (command line) it was very painful, especially the first weeks and
months (after they switched to GUI, then added network) (see Showstopper!).

For ReactOS devs it can be a really boost for fixing bugs in ReactOS, either in the UI or
in some more core parts of the OS.

 

Have fun!

Hermès.

 

De : ros-dev-bounces(a)reactos.org [mailto:[e-mail]] De la part de
Alexander Varnin
Envoyé : vendredi 14 mars 2014 11:47
À : ros-dev(a)reactos.org
Objet : Re: [ros-dev] ReactOS needs to be self-hostable!

 

Hello.
Thanks for sharing.
That problem is urgent for me. 
I will certainly take a look on it, if I have an opportunity to work on ReactOS more
closely.