make.osx SDK location needs updating

[fonnesbeck]

In recent versions of Xcode (in Lion and Mountain Lion), the location of the SDKs have changed. The current version of make.osx has them at /Developer/SDKs. Sadly, they have moved to:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs

[pelson]

Repeat of #825.

[pelson]

@fonnesbeck : Were you able to build with setup.py? We would really like to hear about it if not, as we are in the latter stages of removing make.osx in #1322. I suspect, by the time you have had chance to give it a go, we will have merged that PR - but nonetheless, if you do come across an issue, we can always revert, so please do let us know. Thanks!

[fonnesbeck]

No, I dropped back to using make.osx. It seems necessary still to use the makefile because of the dependencies.

[dmcdougall]

@fonnesbeck What dependencies did you need that don't come with OS X?

[fonnesbeck]

freetype, zlib, libpng -- or have these changed?

[dmcdougall]

I see zlib is already installed in my /usr/lib, but I don't see freetype or libpng.

@fonnesbeck Are you comfortable seeing support dropped for make.osx in favour of self-compilation or installation via a package manager like homebrew or macports?

[fonnesbeck]

I will continue to use a makefile, because I need to generate static builds, so I blow away the shared libraries before making binaries.

So, are freetype and libpng not dependencies anymore? It says they are at the top of setup.py.

[dmcdougall]

@fonnesbeck libng and freetype are still dependencies, I was saying that they didn't come pre-installed on my machine.

Are you saying you still rely on make.osx?

[fonnesbeck]

Yes, I have never successfully built MPL using setup.py only.

[dmcdougall]

And either building libpng and freetype yourself or via a third party package manager (macports or homebrew, for example) is not a viable option for you?

[fonnesbeck]

I've never tried it, because make.osx is pretty reliable. When I bundle and distribute MPL, I dont want to assume that my users use Homebrew or MacPorts, so I will probably continue to use a makefile to ensure that things build statically.

So, don't let folks like me hold up the show if you want to get rid of make.osx. I will be fine maintaining my own makefile.

[dmcdougall]

@fonnesbeck You wouldn't be holding up the show, I just wanted to check we were safe to remove it. Since you use it perhaps removing it for 1.2 would be premature.

@pelson @mdboom @efiring Thoughts?

[efiring]

The basic idea of having a makefile that handles all of the dependencies is nice, but the problem is that to make it work reliably requires a lot of maintenance to keep track of all the variations in OS versions and dependency versions, and the locations of dependencies, some of which keep changing. It seems quite clear that we don't have the resources to do this maintenance well, so I am in favor of removing the makefiles.

[pelson]

@efiring - good summary I tend to agree that as a project, we should be focussing as much effort as we can on delivering killer features rather than having to maintain several ways of building/installing.

@fonnesbeck : if you do end up maintaining a Makefile, then do consider keeping it on github so that all that knowledge can be shared easily. Thanks for your input on this, it is really valuable!