Search code examples
c++quadprog

Getting a library to work (QuadProg++ )

I'm trying to use the Quadprog++ library (http://quadprog.sourceforge.net/). I don't understand the instructions though.

To build the library simply go through the ./configure; make; make install cycle.

In order to use it, you will be required to include in your code file the "Array.hh" header, which contains a handy C++ implementation of Vector and Matrices.

There are some "configure", and "MakeFile" files, but they have no extension and I have no idea what to do with them. There are also some ".am", ".in" and ".ac" extensions in the folder.

Does this look familiar to anyone? What do I do with this?

(Edit: On Windows.)

Solution

  • This package is built using the autotools. These files you talk to (*.am, *.in...) are because of the tools automake, and autoconf.

    Autotools is a de-facto standard in the GNU/Linux world. Not everybody uses it, but if they do you ease the work of package and distribution managers. Actually they should be portable to any POSIX system.

    That said, I'm guessing that you are using a non-unix machine, such as Windows, so the configure script is not directly runable in your system. If you insist in keep using Windows, wich you probably will, your options are:

    1. Use MinGW and MSYS to get a minimal build enviroment compatible with autotools.
    2. Use Cygwin and create a POSIX like environment in your Windows.
    3. Create a VS project, add all the source of the library in there, compile and debug the errors they may arise, as if the code had been written by you.
    4. Search for someone that already did the work and distributes a binary DLL, or similar.
    5. (My favourite!) Get a Linux machine, install a cross-compiler environment to build Windows binaries, and do configure --host i686-mingw32 ; make.