RE: automake+cygwin+VisualC++ compiler set

[Robert Collins]

CC'd to cygwin-apps, because this sub-topic isn't automake per se.
Please follow up just to cygwin-apps.


On 23 Aug 2001 08:21:41 -0400, David Carter wrote:
> On 23 Aug 2001 11:43:07 +0200, Wolfgang Liebich wrote:
> > b) MinGW+CYGWIN: I didn't get this to work as I wanted to. Right now I
> didn't 
> > have the time to research the reason of this problem.
> 
> I have been able to get this working fairly smoothly. Setup is a bit of
> a pain. It seems that the cygwin support for the -mno-cygwin option is a
> bit half-hearted, particularly when it comes to c++.

The -mno-cygwin option _relies_ on mingw libraries and headers.
Unfortunately, they often get a bit outdated.

> General outline of how to get this working:
> (1) normal cygwin install (setup.exe)
> (2) download & untar latest mingw package
> (3) run a g++ compile with -mno-cgwin -v options & look at where the
> compiler & linker are searching for headers & libraries (I suppose you
> could go straight to the specs file for this information, as well.
> (4) now comes the tricky part -- either copy, or (perhaps better) link
> the include & lib directories from the mingw distribution into cygwin's
> /usr/include/mingw & /usr/lib/mingw directories. Pay particular
> attention to the subdirs for the g++ std library.
> 
> Now when you use -mno-cygwin you're essentially running a cross-compiler
> hosted on cygwin, targeting mingw. I would think this would be a very,
> very popular option under cygwin. You have benefit of the full gnu
> toolset for development, and end up with windows-native executables, at
> a significant discount to what VC++ would cost ;-)  My question is, why
> doesn't cygwin setup do all of this for you? Maybe what is needed is a
> cygwin "package" for the mingw-cross?

Maintainer time. Mingw is a different project to cygwin, and no-one at
the cygwin project has the time to devote to keeping the two
syncronised. If someone wanted to be a 'no-cygwin' maintainer, and deal
with bug reports, keep the libraries and headers updated etc, I'm
confident they would get a good reception :].

Rob