  This file describes how to compile the package for Win32  systems using
GNU tools as provided by MinGW package (aka MingWin, MinGW32, etc.).

$Id: mingwin.txt,v 1.3 2003/06/26 02:04:28 salvador Exp $

1. INTRODUCTION
2. COMPILING AND INSTALLING


1. INTRODUCTION

  MinGW needs the help of MSys and a Perl interpreter to compile this
package. I tested it using MinGW 2.0.0, MSys 1.0.8 and the Siemens Perl port
(SiePerl). This provides a good environment for compilation. You must ensure
that MSys' make is used because MinGW 1.1 ships a make command that fails. I
think newer versions doesn't have this problem.
  IMPORTANT! the resulting application can't be run from the MSys console,
use a DOS console or just start it as any Windows application.
  You have to ensure that /bin/sh exists or at least create a symlink to bash
there. If it isn't there you won't be able to run the shell scripts.
  You can compile the library to run under Win32 platforms using various
compilers, for this reason I explain the dis/advantages of using Cygwin for
it.

Advantages:

* Unlike djgpp it generates a Win32 executable, so it integrates better with
Windows NT incarnations (NT, 2000, XP, etc.).
* GCC is very good optimizing code.
* You can use the configure script to fine tune the compilation process.
* The installation is automated.
* The resulting binary doesn't need special DLLs.
* All the needed tools are concentrated in a few packages you have to
download.

Disadvantages:

* The available compiler and the whole tools are really slow. GCC 3.x is too
slow to compile C++ and the Win32 port is even worst.
* I don't use the resulting binary too much so it is more probable to find
bugs not found in the same version compiled with other compilers.


2. COMPILING AND INSTALLING

  Once you installed all the needed tools your system will become some kind
of GNU/Win32 system. For this reason you can just follow the instructions found
in doc/install/unix.txt
  I recommed configuring the package with --no-intl.

