[Mono-dev] Could we use windres to compile .rc files when building mcs tree?

[Kornél Pál]

Hi,

We are using MS.NET compatible version numbers in a lot of places
(AssemblyVersions, AssemblyFileVersions, AssemblyInformationalVersions,
Environment.Version, ...).

By using MS.NET compatible version numbers for versions other than
AssemblyVersions that are not used by the runtime itself we try to make our
runtime environment fully compatiblie with applications that check for
MS.NET version numbers.

Unmanaged Win32 resources are not MS.NET compatible however. In profile 1.x
there are no AssemblyFileVersion attributes so AssemblyVersion attributes
are used as versions in Win32 resources. FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo can
be used to retrieve Win32 version resources. If we belive that
AssemblyInformationalVersion compatibility is important the same is true for
Win32 resources.

I think the best way to solve this problem is to have .rc files that were
compiled to .res files at build time and the used by mcs.

Is windres a too complicated dependency on Linux/Unix or could we use
windres to compile .rc files when building mcs tree?

Kornél