README.mingw32

libFoundation on Windows mingw32 README
=======================================

Intro
=====

    I have started to port the libFoundation library to Windows 95/NT by
    using the so called mingw32 environment. Mingw32 is a GNU compilation
    environment containing gcc, ld and other tools.
    The port is done in a cross-compilation environment. This is significant
    mostly because configure and the Makefiles might not work on Win32 because
    of file naming problems (slash vs backslash).
    First attempts are made to compile lF using mingw32 only, that is, without
    cross-compilation and without cygwin, see below for issues.

Mingw32
=======

    The libFoundation compiles with a sparc-solaris-X-i386-mingw32 compiler in
    the GNUstep make environment. Quite a lot information regarding Unix
    to Windows porting using GNU tools is contained on this site:
        
        http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32/
    
    The site includes a HOWTO file for creating a cross-compiler with a
    i386-mingw32 target which I found *very* useful.

    I recently modified libFoundation to use the Win32 API libraries at

        http://www.acc.umu.se/~anorland/gnu-win32/w32api.html

    These includes/libraries are much more extensive than the ones delivered
    with mingw32. Probably they will make it into the mingw32 distribution.

    There are some other Unix-to-Windows porting packages, especially Cygwin
    from http://www.cygnus.com. Cygwin emulates large parts of Unix
    in it's environment and also provides a Unix shell environment that
    might be used to host native mingw32 compiles.
    The major advantages of mingw32 is that the resulting executables are
    not covered by GPL and that it doesn't require any additional libraries but
    the ones provided by Windows itself. The disadvantage is that more porting
    is required ..

GNUstep-make
============

    If compiling lF with gstep-make (--with-gnustep configure switch) you
    have to configure gstep-make for cross-compilation. This is usually 
    done with a sequence like this:

      cd make
      setenv CC      i386-mingw32-gcc
      setenv RANLIB  i386-mingw32-ranlib
      setenv AR      i386-mingw32-ar
      setenv DLLTOOL i386-mingw32-dlltool
      rm -f config.cache
      ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/GNUstep \
        --target="i386-mingw32" \
        --program-suffix=exe
      unsetenv CC RANLIB AR DLLTOOL
      make install

    Never forget to remove config.cache before calling configure on a different
    target !!!
    If you have done this you can use just

      make target="i386-mingw32"

    to cross compile a gstep-make package.

Building lF
===========

    If you have correctly installed your mingw32 x-tools and gstep-make package,
    compilation of libFoundation for Windows is quite easy:

      cd libFoundation
      setenv CC i386-mingw32-gcc
      rm -f config.cache
      ./configure --with-gnustep --target="i386-mingw32"
      unsetenv CC
      make target="i386-mingw32" install

    That's it ! The resulting binaries will be placed in the appropriate 
    platform subdirectories of the GNUstep hierachy, this way you can keep 
    libraries for multiple targets in one hierachy.

Native Build of lF with cygwin tools
====================================

    I managed to compile lF on NT using the cygwin environment (this is 
    actually a x-compilation as well, from cygwin->mingw32). Note that the
    cygwin environment is only used as the compilation environment, the 
    resulting binary is still mingw32-only.
    
    To get this running I got the b20 version of cygwin:
    
       http://sourceware.cygnus.com
    
    The gcc 2.95.2 compilers from Mumit Khan:
    
       ftp://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/
    
    The GNUstep-make package:
    
       ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep
    
    First you need to configure gstep-make:
    
       cd make
       ./configure --target=i386-mingw32	\
		   --prefix=/cygwin/GNUstep	\
		   --program-suffix=.exe	\
		   --with-library-combo=gnu-fd-gnu-nil
       make target=i386-mingw32 install
    
    Note the --target switch. If you miss that, gstep-make will be configured
    for producing cygwin binaries, which is a different story - so don't
    forget it ! (See below for a hack avoiding this x-setup).
    If you get a message from native make like 'unmatched "', you probably
    are using a wrong shell. Check whether the SHELL variable and /bin/sh
    matches your standard shell (eg cygwin bash or zsh)
    If you get makefiles errors, you may want to make sure that you are
    running cygwin in unix-make-mode (eg echo $MAKE_MODE)
    
    If you like you can patch config.guess to output 'i386-pc-mingw32', this
    makes running tools a bit nicer (this way you avoid making config.guess
    guess the environment as being cygwin). To do that, replace config.guess
    with these contents:

      #!/bin/sh
      echo "i386-pc-mingw32"
    
    After you have installed GNUstep makefiles, source them (you might also
    want to source them on every startup in the .profile file).

Native Build of lF with mingw32 tools
=====================================
    
    It will also be possible to compile libFoundation without the help of a
    Unix system or a Unix emulation like cygwin. The native build process needs
    some more stuff than just the mingw32 binaries provided by Mumit Khan.
    
    You need at least:
    
      egcs and make binaries as provided by Mumit Khan:

        ftp://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/
      
      an appropriate sh.exe, eg the zsh:
      
        ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/
      
      (note that the native bash I retrieved didn't work with make)
      
      a sed:
      
        ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/home/janjaap/mingw32/newnew/
      
      some other tools are useful but not required if one does some handwork:
      
        mkdir  (the DOS mkdir is an internal command and not available in zsh)
        rm
      
      I figured out that you need at least these to run configure:
      
        a sh shell:
        
          see above
        
        grep:
        
          http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~janjaap/mingw32/download.html
        
        cat
      
      The Unix95 kit provides some Unix utilities described (it's also called
      'Virtually Unix'):
      
        http://www.itribe.net/virtunix/files/unix95.7.zip
    
    Note that the library doesn't yet build cleanly, I work on this.

Other useful native Windows software
====================================

    Native Xemacs:
    
      ftp://ftp.ese-metz.fr/pub/xemacs/win32/
    
    Native tcsh:
    
      ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/tcsh/

    Further Mingw32 software:
    
      ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/home/janjaap/mingw32
      ftp://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan
      ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/mingw32

---
Helge Hess (hh@mdlink.de)
MDlink online service center
2000-02-09

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