Subject: Re: Mingw32 Futures
From: [email-masked] (Geoffrey Noer)

22 Feb 1998 20:28:14 -0800
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
References: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text
To: [email-masked] (Colin Peters)
Cc: [email-masked]

Colin Peters wrote:
[...]
> That is typical of the "problems" I am having right now. Basically, there
> are at least three versions of the gcc compiler distribution which either
> have or plan to have Mingw32 integrated into them. Jan jaap's Mingw32 gcc
> 2.8.0, Mumit Khan's releases of EGCS for Mingw32, Cygwin32 gcc (perhaps
> starting with b20) and maybe the FSF version of gcc.

IMHO, here's what I currently think would be best:

1) Scrap the mingw configuration of gcc. Ditto for the Cygwin32
configuration.  The new configuration would just be called
"i[x]86-pc-win32".

2) This configuration will default to behaving as close to a native
Win32 compiler as possible.  This means it would use Microsoft's C
libraries like Mingw does by default.

3) A command-line option would enable the Cygwin32 layer.

I don't know what the FSF's plans are in this area but I would like to
see something like this happen in both egcs and gcc 2.8.

Beta 19 is the last release to include gcc 2.8.  Future releases will
include the egcs compiler.  Hopefully in a configuration similar to
the above.

> 1. Mingw32 is basically a C run time library replacement. As I understand it
> gcc is usually bundled with the GNU C library (libc and libm) among other
> libraries. Cygwin32's newlib is similar (with a more ambitious goal). Has
> anyone seriously thought about how this should fit together?

An interesting idea would be for Cygwin32 to be a layer on top of
Microsoft's C libraries instead of on top of newlib.  I haven't looked
into this yet.

> 4. Related to the above. I don't think b19 is going to include any Mingw32
> stuff (beyond perhaps the ability to be rebuilt under Mingw32). Should I try
> to write up instructions for adding Mingw32 onto a Cygwin install for the
> convenience of those who want both?

The winsup directory in the sources will include a version of mingw we
imported last fall.  A simple makefile modification would make it
buildable and installable.  But the changes to gcc aren't in place so
it's not being built and included in b19 other than being in the sources.

It would be nice to have a drop-in package for b19 that converts it
to a mingw gcc.  We are actively working on integrating mingw into
egcs.

Let me know if you have additional questions...

Geoffrey Noer
[email-masked]
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