Fost 4 release 4.10.03.39008 now out

We think this is the best and most stable release of the new Fost 4 libraries so far. There are a huge number of changes since the last release. So many in fact that it highlights a major problem with the way that we put together release notes, and with the next release we'll be using ChangeLog entries to make it easier to see what is in each

As well as restructuring the file layouts to make the projects easier to use we've also stared to add in some experimental support for iPhone and will soon be looking at Android support (through the use of the NDK).

If you want to get started the best place to look is the fost-hello example project.

svn co http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-hello/tags/4.10.03.39008 fost-hello
cd fost-hello
Boost/build
hello/compile
dist/bin/hello-world-d

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=dist/lib
dist/bin/hello-world-d

svn co http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-hello/tags/4.10.03.39008 fost-hello
cd fost-hello
Boost\build
hello\compile
dist\bin\hello-world-gd

The next release is due out on June 21st.

File layout changes

The file layouts for all of the projects has been changed to move the project code into a lower level folder. This makes room for dependant projects to be part of the same check out via Subversion's svn:externals support.

This means that a project with pretty much everything that is needed to build it can be done by simply checking it out.

Library re-structuring

fost-aws has been split off from fost-internet. The should make it easier for people who don't care about Amazon Web Services support to use the libraries.

Platform specific changes

The MFC build options for Windows have been improved. Build variants are now used which means on Windows as well as debug and release variants debug-mfc and release-mfc variants are supported. The build targets still have the same names as the non-MFC versions so they should not be mixed. The fost-windows project examples can only be built using MFC builds.

We've also added in better support for the free Express compilers from Microsoft. Everything should work properly with Microsoft Express 2008 compiler.

On the Mac we have improved all sorts of things. We now have new testing procedures which means that we're much happier with the Mac support that in any previous release. Mac stability is probably slightly better now than even Windows.

Download locations

Everything is available through our Subversion repository. Below are the locations for the tagged releases for Fost 4.10.03.39008 components.

• fost-aws — Amazon Web Services support — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-aws/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-base — Core libraries — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-base/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-internet — Internet networking libraries — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-internet/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-meta — Everything — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-meta/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-orm — Database libraries — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-orm/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-postgres — PostgreSQL database libraries — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-postgres/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-py — Python language bindings — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-py/tags/4.10.03.39008
• fost-windows — Microsoft Windows specific libraries — http://svn.felspar.com/public/fost-windows/tags/4.10.03.39008

Known issues

• The fost-windows examples must be built with either the debug-mfc or the release-mfc build variants as the ADO COM bindings use MFC.
• OpenSSL must be explicitly checked for fost-windows. All the other libraries include it in the their externals already.
• The build script in the root of the fost-windows check out doesn't pass on arguments. Use the fost-windows\compile script instead.
• The Mac build for fost-postgres assumes PostgreSQL 8.4. For other versions, or non-standard install locations you may need to change the paths in the Jamroot.
• Replacing the version of Python that ships with the Mac is very unlikely to work.