Why does HMG use a customised version of Harbour ?

CCH : From the Harbour Main Developers List

Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:56:26 -0300
From: Roberto Lopez <roberbox@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Harbour] Wich is the official harbour's user group?

Massimo Belgrano wrote:

 > Please Roberto lopez when you see this messages post your right reply
 >
 > Will harbour and hmg share an harbour corner to made assistance to
 > either final user?
 >

At first, regarding the name:

When I've created the library, It was only a simple experiment about
Harbour-C interface, so, I've not care about the name so much :)

I've picked "MiniGUI" because the library featured only a minimal
functionality/GUI object set, so, it appeared to be a good choice.

Some time later, I've realized that a Linux product existed with the
same name, so I've decided to add 'Harbour' to the name.

 From that time, the library was called 'Harbour MiniGUI'. So, avoiding
the name conflict and also made clear my compiler preferece.

There was another problem to solve, I had LOTS of support requests
regarding issues about Harbour and C compiler installation/compatibility.

Then I've decided to package all needed things ready to use with zero
configuration (this was possible with the great help of Lorenzo Fiorini
on MingW compatibility issues).

 From the first 'ready to use' distribution (MiniGUI library + MingW +
Harbour) I've decided to use an alternate name: "HMG". Of course, it
stands for *H*arbour *M*ini *G*ui (indeed, "Harbour MiniGUI" is a not
good one name at all :) )

Regarding the HMG Forum, Viktor is rigth about that the Harbour version
bundled with HMG is a customized version. Moreover, the customization is
minimal (contrib library names are not changed).

Moreover, there is certainly a lack of 'official' Harbour support to users.

Across years I've received tons of bugs reports about Harbour, that I
can't handle because lack of time or knowledge (mostly about
rdd/database issues).

Harbour official users lists is usually inactive, then, some users come
here (not the right place, of course).

HMG Forum site owner and admin is Rathinagiri (a long time HMG user and
contributor) so, he is the right person to ask about this.

 From my part (I've not followed the complete thread about this) there
is no problem to add a specific area on the forum to give support to
Harbour compiler specific issues, but, of course, we will need the
collaboration of some of the Harbour 'masters' to succeed.

 From about one year ago, HMG includes Harbour 1.01 and MingW 3.4.5, so
most questions will surely related to that combo (I'm waiting for
Harbour 2.0 final to replace 1.01 and MingW with 4.x).


Regards,

Roberto.
5th October 2009

Updated on 7th October 2009

Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:04:50 -0300
From: Roberto Lopez <roberbox@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Harbour] Wich is the official harbour's user group?

Viktor Szakáts wrote:

> [ Still not all though, as there exists another package called
> MiniGUI Extended, which actually ships with Harbour 2.0.0b2,

There was only one project from 2002 to 2005 (the one I've started) from
then, two forks emerged: "HMG extended" and "OOHG" (I'm only responsible
for "HMG").

> It's really your project and your decision, but IMO it'd be a big
> step if you'd use a vanilla Harbour build (without customization).
> This way it'd be easier to swap components and general Harbour support
> could be given for both bundled and standalone Harbour distros without
> first identifying which build is in question. Moreover, general
> Harbour support could be given at any forums without being concerned
> about where this build comes from. Same goes for MiniGUI: Support
> could be given even here or other official or unofficial Harbour
> forums.

It's a good idea.

The current HMG distribution uses Harbour 1.01 for MingW build
downloaded from Sourceforge. I've removed 'binutils' not required by HMG
and (of course) added libraries and other things, but this shoud be not
  create problems regarding Harbour compiler support.

Moreover, I'll begin experimenting with Harbour 2.0 beta and publish a
test HMG release ASAP.

If something goes wrong, I'll seek for help here, prior to attempt a
dirty hack, I promise :)

So, hopefully, we will have full 'Harbour support compatible' HMG releases.


Regards,

Roberto