Should "std.net.curl" be moved from Phobos to Deimos?

[Brad Anderson]

On Tuesday, 26 November 2013 at 19:00:35 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
> On 11/25/13 4:36 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>> The number one problem on Windows is the fact that libcurl 
>> does not come with
>> Windows and that you have to get a version of it build which 
>> is compatible
>> with dmd has proven to be a huge hurdle for Windows developers.
>
> Why is "compatible with dmd" an issue? Do we make it any harder 
> for libcurl than other clients? Could you please explain?
>

To use 32-bit curl you need to generate an OMF import library 
from the libcurl DLL. It's not terribly hard. I did it originally 
for when I added downloading of libcurl to the Windows installer. 
It's not at all obvious to users that they need to distribute 
libcurl.dll et al when they distribute their application but 
that's a documentation issue.

If I remember correctly Walter didn't want to distribute in the 
dmd zip anything that wasn't boost licensed which is why curl on 
Windows comes as a separate download. zlib is a notable exception 
but I seem to recall Walter regretted including zlib.

I can't remember off the top of my head if libcurl's license 
allows it to be statically linked with a boost licensed library 
but that would certainly simplify things for end users (but 
complicate the building of phobos a bit).