[fpc-devel] Small virtual machine to cross compile FPC

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Paul Breneman schrieb:

>> I think 100Mb is a bit small.
>> You'll need cross-binutils, X, cross-dev libs and whatnot.
>>
>> 650Mb would be feasable, I guess.
> 
> Thanks for that info, but couldn't most of that be download into the VM 
> *after* it is running?  Seems to me I'd like the *smallest* VM and then 
> have a way to load things into that standard PC.  But maybe I'm thinking 
> wrongly?  If so please help me get it right.

I don't understand why the VM *size* should matter - unless it's >30GB 
for current Windows versions. My goal would be a *simple* OS, easy to 
configure and manage, and then install into it whatever is required. Why 
download and configure all the required tools whenever the VM is run? 
This may take half an day, to get the VM up for cross-development, and 
the downloads end up on the virtual disk as well.

For cross-development I'd install a network of dedicated target VMs, one 
of which can host the project files, and then build the project in every 
target VM. This would allow for parallel builds, and every created 
executable can be tested immediately on its platform - also in parallel 
for comparison of the GUI and operation. With a single development VM 
you would need another VM or emulator to perform the final checks, for 
every single target platform.

> I've looked at (or tried) laz4android and fpcup.  Seems that such an 
> approach would work much better on a "standard" PC?

Virtual machines work well on the same hardware (CPU), but for other 
targets (ARM instead of x86) an emulator is required. Wikipedia says 
that a LiveCD and AndroVM with Android for x86 is available, where it 
might be possible to develop Android applications somewhat "natively" on 
an x86 machine. But finally an emulator or physical device is required, 
where the cross-compiled programs can run on their target CPU, using the 
according libraries (RTL, VCL... for ARM).

Please don't ask me about Adroid, my experience is limited to 
FPC/Lazarus development on various Windows and Linux VMs, and I never 
tried to cross-compile myself. Why cross-compile when I cannot check the 
results?

DoDi