Add some documentation to README.md about how to get going on Windows ARM64.

[jamespack]

This is all I had to do to get building on my arm based surface laptop using the sdk which is nice!!

[cmb69]

I'm not sure if it makes sense to add further quick-starter batch files nowadays; it seems to me they actually get in the way, since you can build any supported PHP version easily with latest Visual Studio 2022 but using an older toolset. For instance, my local phpsdk-vc15-x64.bat is:

@echo off

call %~dp0phpsdk-starter.bat -c vc15 -a x64 -s 14.16 %*

exit /b %ERRORLEVEL%

Or you can run C:\php-sdk\phpsdk-starter.bat -c vs17 -a arm64 directly (or make it a shortcut).

BTW: are you doing only minimal PHP builds on ARM64, or where do you get the dependencies (e.g. libxml2) from?

[jamespack]

phpsdk-vc15-x64.bat is:

@echo off

call %~dp0phpsdk-starter.bat -c vc15 -a x64 -s 14.16 %*

exit /b %ERRORLEVEL%

Makes sense.

BTW: are you doing only minimal PHP builds on ARM64, or where do you get the dependencies (e.g. libxml2) from?

Im using microsoft/vcpkg for deps

If you prefer not to merge it is there a preferred place that I could contrib to docs. Its not immediately clear (at least) to me how to get going on arm :)

[cmb69]

Im using microsoft/vcpkg for deps

Ah, thanks!

is there a preferred place that I could contrib to docs.

We have:

• the README of this repository
• a page in the Wiki (the PHP manual is referring to this document

If you like, provide a PR for the README; I'll try to find some time to update the Wiki page.

[jamespack]

I updated this pull request. Is that enough? Or do you want a new pull request?

[jamespack]

BTW: are you doing only minimal PHP builds on ARM64, or where do you get the dependencies (e.g. libxml2) from?

I dont know the delineation between a minimal build and a respectable windows build but I've worked my way up to iconv, sodium, enchant, libxml, openssl, prce, readline, phar, curl, mysql and dom.

Notably, gd is missing. I have all of the libs for arm but i cant seem to make it happy. I think the libs for gd rely on some x64 intrinsics that may not be available on arm. Not 100% sure about that. But once I figured out the libxml mess the rest was pretty straight forward.

[cmb69]

I dont know the delineation between a minimal build and a respectable windows build […]

With minimal build I was referring to a build without any external dependencies.

but I've worked my way up to iconv, sodium, enchant, libxml, openssl, prce, readline, phar, curl, mysql and dom.

Great!

I think the libs for gd rely on some x64 intrinsics that may not be available on arm. Not 100% sure about that.

That's certainly possible. It's also possible that they use some manually written assembler code.

The whole GD integration is unfortunate on Windows: you cannot use an external libgd, and to build with the bundled GD, you need all supported dependencies. Otherwise you could try library by library, and even start without any dependency. I hope to find some time to work on that, anyway.

[jamespack]

@cmb69 If you're interested. Here jamespack/php-deps-windows-arm64 is how I'm currently handling deps. This could probably be tied into the build system. There are a few libs that dont play well. Notably libxml. but for the most part vcpkg is awesome.

[jamespack]

Even managed to get GD built!

[cmb69]

but for the most part vcpkg is awesome.

We have discussed using vcpkg a few years ago, and came to the conclusion that it doesn't fulfill our needs. (naming conventions; distribution of single packages; and maybe a couple of other issues)

[jamespack]

but for the most part vcpkg is awesome.

We have discussed using vcpkg a few years ago, and came to the conclusion that it doesn't fulfill our needs. (naming conventions; distribution of single packages; and maybe a couple of other issues)

I get that on your side. Its nice for the home gamer tho. Its also matured quite a bit since then.