Subject: Re: A Mingw32 runtime library independent of MSVCRT.DLL
From: Robert Collins <[email-masked]>
To: John Platts <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 27 Jul 2002 13:08:15 +1000

On Sat, 2002-07-27 at 12:33, John Platts wrote:
> Why do mingw32 users continue to use a runtime library dependent of 
> MSVCRT.DLL?
...
> 
> Cygwin developers:
> NOTE: The cygwin setup program should not be linked with MSVCRT.DLL or 
> CRTDLL.DLL. It should also not be linked with the cygwin library. It needs 
> to be linked with a static native Win32 C Runtime Library, such as what the 
> Mingw32 Alternate C Runtime Library is going to be. If you are a developer 
> wishing to contribute to the library, please do so. Please send email to 
> [email-masked] if you are going to contribute. Developers 
> should participate in the efforts, so that a Cygwin setup program can be 
> written the way it should be without having to use a commercial Win32 
> compiler such as Microsoft Visual C++.NET.

Hi, I'm the cygwin setup.exe maintainer.

I don't use any microsoft development tools to build/release/test
setup.exe.

I think what you are attempting is interesting, and very similar to what
cygwin1.dll is - a C runtime (well, cygwin is a posix API runtime
including C runtime) for win32.

However, I don't have time to help build YACL. Patches to link setup.exe
with your mingw ACR will be considered like all other patches - I'm not
particularly for or against linking into it. Before I release a version
to the web site linked with such a library, the library (as a -devel
package) would need to be part of the cygwin net distribution (as a
matter of policy I only use tools available via the cygwin net
distribution to build and distribute setup.exe).

BTW: Your comment about a commercial win32 compiler being needed is 100%
inaccurate.

Good luck, and cheers.

Rob