Compile Paddle on Windows System

[gangliao]

Related Project

[wangkuiyi]

@gangliao 请说明

1. 为什么会有这个需求，
2. 为了解决它需要做什么

给定这些信息，我们才有依据如何处理，比如放进哪个milestone里。

[gangliao]

@wangkuiyi
Request came from #5.
To port Paddle on Windows:

1. revise CMake to support Windows(MSVC).
2. add Win32 socket APIs for networks.
3. add Windows-related APIs for system-level stuff.
4. unite dynamic load libraries interfaces for all operating systems.
5. fix bugs and unit test on Windows.

[gangliao]

Predicting how long to end this long-term work is difficult, so it's not added into any of recent milestones.

[reyoung]

@gangliao I will review them tomorrow, when I'm on duty for github issues.

Duty day is a good chance to review PR. :-)

@wangkuiyi This feature is not associated to any milestone because we just finish to compile on Windows, but there is no continuous integration and regression test for it. Also the install package for windows should be added.

So, we should do discuss it layer when ci, install pack, etc is done.

I will add a project to track it.

[reyoung]

@gangliao Sorry, i just notice that this is an issue, not a PR.

Is windows compile ready to send a PR now?

[gangliao]

@reyoung maybe a little bit later..

[wangkuiyi]

@reyoung @gangliao I would suggest we deny this requirement and close this issue as well as #5. Given that Microsoft Azure is running Linux, I don't see a Windows port would make Paddle much popular. To serve the community well, we need to prioritize.

[wangkuiyi]

I had a discussion about this issue with @emailweixu today. Given that Mac and Window can both run Docker using native virtualization mechanism, in particular,

1. Windows: https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/windows/
2. Mac: https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/mac/

I believe that we should encourage users to run Paddle in Docker containers on Mac and Windows.

If we see enough number of +1's accumulate in #5 in the future, we can move on working on Windows (or Mac) ports. For now, let us let focus on making Paddle runs well with Linux.