Subject: Re: MS Platform SDK now available
From: [email-masked] (Paul Garceau)

26 Nov 1997 11:18:17 -0800
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
References: <[email-masked]>
Reply-To: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]

Hi Axel,

	Thanks for getting back to me on this.  It is much appreciated.  For 
those on the list interested in using the MS Platform SDK, this appears to 
be very sound advice.

	(As a quick aside...it appears that your email to the list is being 
duplicated, Axel).

On 24 Nov 97 at 10:24, the Illustrious Axel Riese wrote:

> Hi Paul !
> 
> You wrote
> 
> > 	Please, forgive me for not being more specific...
> 
> > > > 	Anyone had the opportunity to attempt using the Platform SDK under 
> > > > Gnu-Win32 (eg. mingw32)?  If so, are there any steps I need to take in 
> > > > order to enable it for this NT 4.0 system?
> > > 
> > > Yes, I use the MS headers with both GNU-Win32 and mingw32. They in fact
> > > need some changes. But most of them are covered by the patch file that
> > > comes with the RSXNT package. What remains to do is to change some
> > > definitions in shellobj.h (or whatever it is called) and some other files
> > > included by this one. Personally, I think it's worth the effort, because
> > > you get some nice additional features like DDE, ...
> > 
> > 	The NT 4.0 system I am using is an ix86 based system.  I guess I was 
> > asking if there were any written walk-throughs that can facilitate my 
> > making the latest (November 1997) version of the Platform SDK useable by 
> > Mingw32.  Would the RSXNT package be useable on a non-RSX machine?
> > 
> > 	I realize that there may be a need to re-build all of the 
> > Platform SDK libraries for Mingw32 (which may in fact be the best 
> > solution)...I simply have no idea where to begin on such an endeavor.
> 
> Well, of course it depends on what you expect from the Platform SDK.

	Well, my expectation is that I can use source code developed under 
VC/C++ and compile it with the GC/C++ tool set with little or no changes 
to the actual source code itself.

	The November 1997 Platform SDK from MS is generated based on the MS 
assumption that the developer in question has purchased either Borland 
C/C++ or MS Visual C/C++ and is using either of those as their development 
packages.  (If I had my way, MS wouldn't have 80 to 90% of the Wintel OS 
support and development market...instead they would have only about a 
fifth.  I know a lot of software developers who don't like cowtowing to 
MS or Intel.)

> I
> never felt the need to use the SDK libraries, because the ones from
> mingw32 are pretty complete. My only motivation was to have also complete
> headers (e.g. for all the shell functions, DDE, etc.) and in fact the
> resource compiler rc.exe.

	Does that include the DX stuff?

> Second, RSXNT is just part of another port of GCC to Win32 (ix86 !). The
> nice thing about it is that it contains a patch which allows the use of
> the MS headers. Thus, you only need patch.exe and patch.diff (or
> something like that - write my mail here on a different machine, so I
> can't check). As I said, this patch does not cover the file shlobj.h and
> a few others included by this one. But all you have to do is to give
> nameless unions a name in those headers (if you need them at all).

	I'll take another look at this.
 
> You should also use the files wingnu.h (gnuwin.h ?) and windows.h from
> RSXNT. Don't worry about some warnings like redefinition of ... if you
> use the shell functions, simply ignore them.

	It does.  

	Thanks,

		Paul G.

Chronicles of Aurum: Book I
      A Journey Into the Fantastic
http://www.submergedsoftware.com/
ICQ#977283
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