KDL on Windows

Hello all,

This is my first time posting on the mailing list. I am trying to get
KDL working on windows XP using VS express + cmake.

Has anyone had any luck with this? Is there a writeup some where that
has some pointers? The main page says windows is supported but I've
already spent 6 hours tweeking and editing and still haven't got it
working.

Any advise would be appreciated. I'll post more specific information
about the problems I'm having if no one knows where a write up is.

Thanks

KDL on Windows

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
<airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> This is my first time posting on the mailing list. I am trying to get
> KDL working on windows XP using VS express + cmake.
>
> Has anyone had any luck with this? Is there a writeup some where that
> has some pointers? The main page says windows is supported but I've
> already spent 6 hours tweeking and editing and still haven't got it
> working.
>
> Any advise would be appreciated. I'll post more specific information
> about the problems I'm having if no one knows where a write up is.

I think Windows is not an actively maintained port of KDL. On the
other hand, KDL is quite operating system independent, once you get
the dependencies correctly installed. If you post some of your
issues/fixes there's a good chance they'll find their way into KDL.

Peter

Ruben Smits's picture

KDL on Windows

On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
> <airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> This is my first time posting on the mailing list. I am trying to get
>> KDL working on windows XP using VS express + cmake.
>>
>> Has anyone had any luck with this? Is there a writeup some where that
>> has some pointers? The main page says windows is supported but I've
>> already spent 6 hours tweeking and editing and still haven't got it
>> working.
>>
>> Any advise would be appreciated. I'll post more specific information
>> about the problems I'm having if no one knows where a write up is.
>
> I think Windows is not an actively maintained port of KDL.

Indeed, but I know people have used it on Windows in the past. Since
KDL is also one of the core packages of ROS, you might want to look at
how they build ROS packages for Windows:
http://files.yujinrobot.com/win_ros/presentations/roscon_2012/win_ros.pdf
and http://www.ros.org/wiki/fuerte/Installation/Windows.

> On the
> other hand, KDL is quite operating system independent, once you get
> the dependencies correctly installed. If you post some of your
> issues/fixes there's a good chance they'll find their way into KDL.

Any fixes to get things working for Windows again are welcome.

> Peter

Ruben

> --
> Orocos-Users mailing list
> Orocos-Users [..] ...
> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users

KDL on Windows

Thanks Peter and Ruben.

I have had luck compiling the KDL library, but haven't been able to
use it yet. Specifically I notice that there is a orocos-kdl.dll in
orocos_kdl/build/src/Release, but I can't find a .lib to link to. Is
there a way to link to a .dll instead of a .lib?

Thanks,
Aaron

On 11/7/12, Ruben Smits <ruben [dot] smits [..] ...> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...>
> wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
>> <airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> This is my first time posting on the mailing list. I am trying to get
>>> KDL working on windows XP using VS express + cmake.
>>>
>>> Has anyone had any luck with this? Is there a writeup some where that
>>> has some pointers? The main page says windows is supported but I've
>>> already spent 6 hours tweeking and editing and still haven't got it
>>> working.
>>>
>>> Any advise would be appreciated. I'll post more specific information
>>> about the problems I'm having if no one knows where a write up is.
>>
>> I think Windows is not an actively maintained port of KDL.
>
> Indeed, but I know people have used it on Windows in the past. Since
> KDL is also one of the core packages of ROS, you might want to look at
> how they build ROS packages for Windows:
> http://files.yujinrobot.com/win_ros/presentations/roscon_2012/win_ros.pdf
> and http://www.ros.org/wiki/fuerte/Installation/Windows.
>
>> On the
>> other hand, KDL is quite operating system independent, once you get
>> the dependencies correctly installed. If you post some of your
>> issues/fixes there's a good chance they'll find their way into KDL.
>
> Any fixes to get things working for Windows again are welcome.
>
>> Peter
>
> Ruben
>
>> --
>> Orocos-Users mailing list
>> Orocos-Users [..] ...
>> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users
>
>
>
> --
> Ruben Smits, Phd
> Chief Technology Officer
> Intermodalics BVBA
> +32479511786
> www.intermodalics.eu
>

KDL on Windows

On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:39 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
<airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
> Thanks Peter and Ruben.
>
> I have had luck compiling the KDL library, but haven't been able to
> use it yet. Specifically I notice that there is a orocos-kdl.dll in
> orocos_kdl/build/src/Release, but I can't find a .lib to link to. Is
> there a way to link to a .dll instead of a .lib?

I'm a bit rusty on this. The answer is no though. The .lib must be
generated automatically, and for that, KDL must dll export its
symbols, which it should, but maybe does not due to some bug in KDL's
CMake code.

There is no dll export wrappers present in the code, so it must be a
MS compiler flag to export all symbols. If you can find this flag, we
can add it to the cmake code with an if (WIN32) ... check around it.

Peter

>
> Thanks,
> Aaron
>
> On 11/7/12, Ruben Smits <ruben [dot] smits [..] ...> wrote:
>> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...>
>> wrote:
>>> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
>>> <airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
>>>> Hello all,
>>>>
>>>> This is my first time posting on the mailing list. I am trying to get
>>>> KDL working on windows XP using VS express + cmake.
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone had any luck with this? Is there a writeup some where that
>>>> has some pointers? The main page says windows is supported but I've
>>>> already spent 6 hours tweeking and editing and still haven't got it
>>>> working.
>>>>
>>>> Any advise would be appreciated. I'll post more specific information
>>>> about the problems I'm having if no one knows where a write up is.
>>>
>>> I think Windows is not an actively maintained port of KDL.
>>
>> Indeed, but I know people have used it on Windows in the past. Since
>> KDL is also one of the core packages of ROS, you might want to look at
>> how they build ROS packages for Windows:
>> http://files.yujinrobot.com/win_ros/presentations/roscon_2012/win_ros.pdf
>> and http://www.ros.org/wiki/fuerte/Installation/Windows.
>>
>>> On the
>>> other hand, KDL is quite operating system independent, once you get
>>> the dependencies correctly installed. If you post some of your
>>> issues/fixes there's a good chance they'll find their way into KDL.
>>
>> Any fixes to get things working for Windows again are welcome.
>>
>>> Peter
>>
>> Ruben
>>
>>> --
>>> Orocos-Users mailing list
>>> Orocos-Users [..] ...
>>> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ruben Smits, Phd
>> Chief Technology Officer
>> Intermodalics BVBA
>> +32479511786
>> www.intermodalics.eu
>>
>
>
> --
> - Aaron O'Toole

KDL on Windows

On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 5:30 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:39 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
> <airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
>> Thanks Peter and Ruben.
>>
>> I have had luck compiling the KDL library, but haven't been able to
>> use it yet. Specifically I notice that there is a orocos-kdl.dll in
>> orocos_kdl/build/src/Release, but I can't find a .lib to link to. Is
>> there a way to link to a .dll instead of a .lib?
>
> I'm a bit rusty on this. The answer is no though. The .lib must be
> generated automatically, and for that, KDL must dll export its
> symbols, which it should, but maybe does not due to some bug in KDL's
> CMake code.
>
> There is no dll export wrappers present in the code, so it must be a
> MS compiler flag to export all symbols. If you can find this flag, we
> can add it to the cmake code with an if (WIN32) ... check around it.

It's not that simple, see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/900axts6(v=vs.110).aspx

The only good choice for KDL is using __declspec(dllexport/dllimport)
using a macro mechanism, as is in use by RTT and OCL. So you'll need
to patch every class and free function definition using this macro.

Or use Erwin's suggestion of adding the KDL .cpp files in your C++ project.

Peter

KDL on Windows

On 11/09/2012 05:30 PM, Peter Soetens wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:39 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
> <airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
>> Thanks Peter and Ruben.
>>
>> I have had luck compiling the KDL library, but haven't been able to
>> use it yet. Specifically I notice that there is a orocos-kdl.dll in
>> orocos_kdl/build/src/Release, but I can't find a .lib to link to. Is
>> there a way to link to a .dll instead of a .lib?
> I'm a bit rusty on this. The answer is no though. The .lib must be
> generated automatically, and for that, KDL must dll export its
> symbols, which it should, but maybe does not due to some bug in KDL's
> CMake code.
>
> There is no dll export wrappers present in the code, so it must be a
> MS compiler flag to export all symbols. If you can find this flag, we
> can add it to the cmake code with an if (WIN32) ... check around it.
>
> Peter
For a quick-and-dirty solution, if you just want to try out KDL, you can
probably just add the
.cpp files in orocos_kdl/src and orocos_kdl/src/utilities to your project.
and both directories also to your include directories to take into
account the header files.

>
>
>> Thanks,
>> Aaron
>>
>> On 11/7/12, Ruben Smits <ruben [dot] smits [..] ...> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Aaron O'Toole <airuno2L [..] ...>
>>>> <airuno2l [..] ...> wrote:
>>>>> Hello all,
>>>>>
>>>>> This is my first time posting on the mailing list. I am trying to get
>>>>> KDL working on windows XP using VS express + cmake.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone had any luck with this? Is there a writeup some where that
>>>>> has some pointers? The main page says windows is supported but I've
>>>>> already spent 6 hours tweeking and editing and still haven't got it
>>>>> working.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any advise would be appreciated. I'll post more specific information
>>>>> about the problems I'm having if no one knows where a write up is.
>>>> I think Windows is not an actively maintained port of KDL.
>>> Indeed, but I know people have used it on Windows in the past. Since
>>> KDL is also one of the core packages of ROS, you might want to look at
>>> how they build ROS packages for Windows:
>>> http://files.yujinrobot.com/win_ros/presentations/roscon_2012/win_ros.pdf
>>> and http://www.ros.org/wiki/fuerte/Installation/Windows.
>>>
>>>> On the
>>>> other hand, KDL is quite operating system independent, once you get
>>>> the dependencies correctly installed. If you post some of your
>>>> issues/fixes there's a good chance they'll find their way into KDL.
>>> Any fixes to get things working for Windows again are welcome.
>>>
>>>> Peter
>>> Ruben
>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Orocos-Users mailing list
>>>> Orocos-Users [..] ...
>>>> http://lists.mech.kuleuven.be/mailman/listinfo/orocos-users
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ruben Smits, Phd
>>> Chief Technology Officer
>>> Intermodalics BVBA
>>> +32479511786
>>> www.intermodalics.eu
>>>
>>
>> --
>> - Aaron O'Toole