[GLib] Build GLib using Meson in Appveyor

[asfimport]

Reporter: Wes McKinney / @wesm
Assignee: Kouhei Sutou / @kou

Related issues:

• [CI] Add jobs for 32-bit and 64-bit MinGW (is duplicated by)

_{Note: This issue was originally created as ARROW-1642. Please see the migration documentation for further details.}

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
To support Visual Studio, we need to migrate our GNU Autotools build system to Meson build system. Meson supports Visual Studio.
Meson: http://mesonbuild.com/

The latest GLib itself has migrated to Meson build system. So we should also use Meson as the new build system.

We should do it before 1.0.0.

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Wes McKinney / @wesm:
Not knowing anything about Meson, how would you characterize it vs using CMake for this particular task (I have no particular attachments to CMake other than that we are already using it)?

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
I may not understand what you want to know correctly. You want to know why Meson is better than CMake, right?

Meson has built-in GObject Introspection support: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/blob/master/mesonbuild/modules/gnome.py#L396
CMake doesn't. If we use CMake, we need to implement GObject Introspection related build configurations.

So I suggest that we use Meson than CMake.

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Wes McKinney / @wesm:
Makes sense. Thanks!

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Paddy Horan / @paddyhoran:
Thank you, I will start to look at Meson. Honestly, I'm relieved. I know Python well.

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
We can learn how to use Meson from existing GTK+ related projects.
ATK may be a good example because it's simpler than other projects:

• https://github.com/GNOME/atk/blob/master/meson.build
• https://github.com/GNOME/atk/blob/master/atk/meson.build

[asfimport]

Paddy Horan / @paddyhoran:
As someone relatively inexperienced trying to contribute I have to say I am seriously impressed with Meson. My biggest hurdle right now is figuring out CMake and Autotools.

After a few hours yesterday I'm up and running on Meson, even on windows (normally anything not VS based is painful). Of course, I still need to learn Autotools if I am to make any impact on this issue...

I think you should consider using Meson throughout, just my opinion.

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
I may not understand what you say correctly.
Is it better that I work on migrating to Meson from GNU Autotools? Then you work on testing on Windows. (I'm not Windows user. I'm Debian GNU/Linux user.)

If I work on it, please wait a few weeks. I don't have enough time for now.

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Paddy Horan / @paddyhoran:
I'm attempting to add the Meson build for windows, but I have a lot to learn so I wouldn't expect much from me. If I get something workable I'll share it with you and maybe it saves you some time when you get around to migrating to Meson.

Either way I'll definitely test it on windows / attempt to tweak it to work on windows.

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
I start Meson support: #1196
I don't test it on Windows yet.

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Paddy Horan / @paddyhoran:
I see that the AppVeyor builds were successful, I guess that is all you need to close this issue. I'll try to build also myself when I get a chance and report any feedback, if any. Many thanks for your work on this Kouhei.

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
No, no. There are no Arrow GLib build configuration for AppVeyor yet. We need to work on it as the next step.

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Paddy Horan / @paddyhoran:
Oh ok, I see. It was just testing existing builds but GLib needs to be added.

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Wes McKinney / @wesm:
I updated the issue title. Help getting GLib building in Appveyor would be great

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Kouhei Sutou / @kou:
Arrow GLib's AppVeyor build was added by ARROW-4353.
It uses MinGW not Visual Studio. We should create anew JIRA issue when we need Visual Studio build.