On Sun, May 01, 2016 at 08:58:12PM +0200, Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:
     John Darrington writes:
     
     >      I am sorry for my ignorance but why is libiconv needed when
     >      targeting mingw?
     >      
     > Because Microsoft does not implement iconv, and presumably this package needs it.
     
     It's a good question, it puzzles me too why GNU libc decides to bundle
     or duplicate the GNU iconv functionality.  In general (webkit, qt), such
     practice is frowned upon?

I think the reason is historical.  Libc implemented iconv before libiconv became
available.  I suppose they could drop it, but then a lot of people will be suprised
when their programs no longer link.

But yes it's not a nice sitation ... especially as the api of the iconv function
is gratuitously different between the implementations.

J'

-- 
Avoid eavesdropping.  Send strong encryted email.
PGP Public key ID: 1024D/2DE827B3 
fingerprint = 8797 A26D 0854 2EAB 0285  A290 8A67 719C 2DE8 27B3
See http://sks-keyservers.net or any PGP keyserver for public key.