[sword-devel] Information for beginning Windows BCB 6 Developers

[Wade Maxfield]

Hi All,
  
  (Especially Newbies)

  This is a compilation of notes to hopefully assist beginning
developers in the Windows Environment.  The prerequesite is a good
understanding of Borland C++Builder 6, and a generally good
understanding of Version Control systems such as CVS.  This project
uses SVN at the current time.

   1) Follow the _setup_ instructions at 
http://www.crosswire.org/ucgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/LsTutorials

   That helps get an environment set up that any code you write can
live in.  Note: The BibleCS program won't run after compiling, UNLESS
the default user configuration files are set up properly.  That is
most easily done by installing TheSword on your machine, and pointing
the output directory of the BCB6 compiled executable to the sword
directory.

  
    2) Checkout all the sword code from SVN.  Hopefully, you'll get a
buildable version.  To do this, follow most of the instructions (with
a few modifications) at:
http://www.crosswire.org/ucgi-bin/twiki/view/Swordwin/GettingStarted

     The modifications to those instructions are as follows:  Ignore
the CVS instructions.  Instead, download into your c:\src directory
using SVN and the following URLS:

      https://crosswire.org/svn/sword/trunk
       https://crosswire.org/svn/biblecs/trunk
       https://crosswire.org/svn/icu-sword/trunk
       https://crosswire.org/svn/sword-tools/trunk

 within the c:\src directory
  Download the sword/trunk into directory sword
  Download the biblecs/trunk into directory biblecs
...etc..
 
   3) go to http://www.tntware.com and download the "TntWare Delphi
Unicode Controls" and unzip them into a directory. I chose c:\program
files\Borland\Cbuilder6\, and it put a TntUnicode directory there. 
Add that directory to the Directories and Conditionals tab in the
project options screen for the includes.  It includes header files
left out of all the directories on the BibleCS branch.

   You can try to install the controls, but you'll get errors, and
tntware is unfamiliar with BCB6, so you're on your on.  The important
controls _may_ work once installed. I'm not sure.

    4)  Move into the BibleCS\Cbuilder6 directory and load the master
project. It should load and compile without problems.  If it does not,
the SVN is probably out of sync with the developers, and you'll need
to try to snarf a good version as soon as they get it properly sync'd.

   5) Once you get a build, change the Output directory to the
installation directory you installed the Windows version of the Sword
Project into.  Rebuild and run.   (Otherwise, you'll get an immediate
bail of the Sword executable.  )

  If you try to run the tutorial, YOU MUST set its output to the sword
project. It also relies upon the same user configuration files, and
will crash with exception upon startup if the configuration files
don't exist.

  If you decide to follow the tutorial, the tutorial_02 link does not
work.  trace back up the http://... url that tried to load and have
the web browser show you the directory. You'll be able to do a
download of the second zip file at that time.

  The tutorials work, but when you exit, you'll probably get an
exception because in filemgr.cpp, FileMgr::close() the global "files"
has a value of 00010 in it at exit, and it causes a Memory exception
as the system tries to reference an invalid address.  I've had to
ignore this error. It may cause you to have to reboot your computer
after a few runs as a memory leak may occur.

  The tutorials reference bible files that don't exist any more.  The
tutorial won't crash if you don't have the right files in there, so go
experiment and see how it was done.

   Many thanks to the developers who got the Sword project to this
point. It is a very valuable effort and needs to be encouraged.

Maranatha!
Wade Maxfield