Discussion: Current State of the Ev3 Source Build Process

[tcwan]

Hi,

I've been poking around the EV3 sources a bit more and found that the build process is very fragile as it is dependent on many fixed paths.
In addition, it is difficult to maintain different builds of the firmware due to the hardcoded paths used currently.

Is there any reason that the current source directory layout is used? e.g., to track the LEGO source repository?

I'm wondering if there are plans to switch to one of the auto-build tools such as autotools?
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the autotools setup to be able to come up with a good configuration.

I've been using scons for my nxos-armdebug project. Scons is quite powerful but it is dependent on python and is not mainstream enough, so not many people know how to use it. In addition, not many IDEs support it natively, except perhaps for Eclipse using the third party SConsolidator plugin.

[gloomyandy]

I'm pretty sure the current layout is exactly as it comes from Lego. I suspect that they will not change the way they work. So any changes will require some way of converting future drops from Lego to match the new system. I agree it is not the most convenient, but I guess it could be worse. Given that much of the build system is that used by the Linux kernel I'd be tempted to use something similar rather than adding yet another system into the process, but then again build systems have never been my favorite way to spend my time!

[afanofosc]

The most important thing to keep in mind, with respect to the EV3 firmware source code, is that LEGO did not want it released to the public yet. There was a mis-communication regarding whether it should have been given out during the OHM event.

John Hansen

[mightor]

There was no miscommunication. I had been given explicit permission to release the source code to give to people at the OHM event. I figured the easiest way to do that was to put it on git, which I did. Rather than wait for one of the OHM participants to create a public repo, over which we have no control, I preemptively did it. LEGO went "OMG", followed by a "meh, whatever".

I think if we wait for LEGO to give the go-ahead, we'll be waiting until early 2014. Robomatter have also been given the source code now, so I think it's safe to say they consider it finished.

= Xander

[schodet]

There is a issue open on github (#8) about the build system, I am currently working on it to make it easy to build everything.

The release on github is really a great thing, this will enable cooperation and will make change tracking possible.

[tcwan]

There is a issue open on github (#8) about the build system, I am currently working on it to make it easy to build everything.

Great!
T. C.