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Date:	Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:25:39 -0700 (PDT)
From:	km4hr <km4hr AT netscape DOT net>
To:	cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject:	Re: How to link with third party libraries using gcc
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Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
> 
> km4hr wrote:
>> Well, I think I'm about at the end of my road. My purpose for trying
>> cygwin
>> was to see if it could insulate me from having to learn to program on
>> Windows. But if I've got to go to MSNBC (or whatever) or google the
>> internet
>> to figure out the internals of Windows then that defeats my purpose.  I'm
>> too close to the end of my career for that. I have no interest in Windows
>> anyway.
>> 
>> I am amazed at what the Cygwin programmers have accomplished. They're
>> obviously very capable programmers. But if I have to learn Windows to use
>> cygwin then what's the use?  I might as well just learn the Windows
>> programming tools. They're easy to use, or so I'm told.
>> 
>> I am glad cygwin enables me to run "vi" on Windows. That alone is very
>> useful. The Unix utilities are nice too!
>> 
>> Thanks for your suggestions.
> 
> I'm glad you found it useful.
> 
> I think you're proceeding from a false assumption about Cygwin though.
> Cygwin is an emulation layer that will insulate your from much of the
> differences between Windows and Linux if you work entirely within it's
> confines.  It will insulate you somewhat if you straddle the line between
> Cygwin and Windows.  You're in the camp of the latter because you're
> working
> with a lib created on Windows for Windows by Windows tools.  If that's
> a problem for you, you have the option of building the library from
> source using Cygwin.  Then you will have none of the problems you were
> noticing.  I expect that's not of interest (or possible) to you either
> but I thought it worthwhile to point out.  You're still getting allot
> of insulation, no matter how you look at it though.  You don't have
> to learn the Win32 API or anything. :-)
> 
> 

I agree, Cygwin is certainly useful in many ways. The developers have done
the rest of us a huge service.
After re-reading my previous post I felt I may have come down too hard on
Cygwin. I didn't mean to do that.

The programming I do is relatively simple. But I appreciate the complexities
involved in getting Windows and Unix to virtually live together on the same
computer. I have no idea how cygwin does that. But with all the complex
obstacles that the cygwin developers have obviously overcome it's puzzling
to me why something as seemingly ordinary as Windows libraries is so
mystifying.  In just this one series of messages I've been told the
instructions in the cygwin user's guide make no sense. Then I'm offered
several opinions about what I should do. It makes me wonder how Windows' own
programming tools are able to link with their own libraries if the standards
are so vague and haphazard.  I guess I'll just add one more entry to the
list of things I can't comprehend about Windows.  I'm ok with that because I
don't care about Windows anyway.

Thanks again from enlightening me.


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