Building on Mac and Linux

[ZoriaRPG]

What conversion is needed? 4.4 API is not backwards compatible with 4.2?

The main thing, was adding functions to handle the packfile password junk. That's done. At present, IDK why the audio libs are crashing on the Win platform, and Grayswandir is having different issues with audio on Linux. I think that Allegro itself is fine now, but finishing up the other libs mayn't be.

It feel as if GME is causing the problems, but I'm unsure. We need to update that, too. We're a dozen releases back, and the newer version is more stable, with better output, and more supports more formats, including NSFE.

Did you try running those binaries? Maybe you can debug why playing any NSF causes them to crash. If you want all the allegro stuff and the makefile that I'm using to process ZC, I can pack it all up for you. In fact, it is probably here:

http://timelord.insomnia247.nl/zc/zc...egro_4.4.3.zip

This relates to these log entries for ag4.4:

Eliminated the need for old DirectX headers for the Windows port (David Capello). 

Fix problems in Windows when you use Alt-Tab. Sometimes the Alt modifier is kept pressed when you focus the Allegro window. (David Capello)

The latter of these two issues was a very annoying bug in ZC/ZQuest, and the former helps fix some graphic badness.

The makefile should be in there, I build Allegro following the instructions here, here, and here using the latest Allegro 4.4 tree from one year ago.

As long as we have the libs working on our end, then there's no real reason not to include them in the main branch. Cleaning up the repo clearly isn't happening, and that's outside of my realm of control. If we make a package that has ag4.4, with clean build files, clean and updated libs, and such; then it may as well be the new main, and it can go up into the repo whenever Gleeok or Saffith want to fix it, which if things progress as they have gone in the past, will be in a few months.

Realistically, we could fix that in a day or two, but they are the ones with repo access, and unless they want to add anyone else, they are stuck handling it. In the interim, I'd like to get us off all these ancient library versions so that maybe we can fix some of the hindrances that we're trying to fix in the worst ways possible. Hell, if we were to 'fix' one of these bugs without updating, then updating could instead introduce some quirk that we didn't expect, because we did something silly to work around a bug in software that is a decade out of date with the current tree.

4.4 also has quite a number of Mac-specific fixes, too. You should read the changelogs. Too bad that log doesn't cover 4.4.2 to 4.4.3. Could also fix the joystick issues on some Linux systems.

4.2 also refused to comply with being built on Linux, for @Grayswandir : He couldn't compile ZC at all, using Allegro 4.2.x., for a long while. TBH, I don't recall if he ever solved that, or if he just went with 4.4.3.