From: vischne AT ibm DOT net
Subject: Re: combining mingw32 + cygwin32
8 Jan 1998 01:07:07 -0800
Message-ID: <199801080337.DAA55538.cygnus.gnu-win32@out4.ibm.net>
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To: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com

>   Mumit Khan (khan AT xraylith DOT wisc DOT edu)
>   Wed, 7 Jan 1998 12:34:38 -0600 (CST)

>> That's interesting.  The first version of ming were compatible with kernel32.
>> I wonder why it is necessary to have two separate setups, one cygwin and one
>> mingw32, when the cygwin ./configure and make capabilities are so much better
>> at this time.  It seems to make more sense to have ming as an auxiliary
>>system,
>> and use the cygwin tools to run ming.
>>
>
>Mingw32 *is* compatible with kernel32. In fact, in my own setup, I just
>use the same import libraries for both cygwin32 and mingw32. I believe
>everybody agrees that the distributions should be merged in some manner,
>but I don't have time nor the incentive to do it. Volunteers welcome of
>course. Currently, I have two separate trees and I just "configure ...;
>make ...; make install;  + few tweaks via shell scripts" and I have a
>native distribution built on a linux box.
>
Look, the first version of mingw32 used cygwin32 gcc, make, and all its
binutils.  What you did to run mingw32 was to switch spec files and
run a Dos batch file that changed the environment variables that pointed
to the include and library directories.  That wasn't exactly automated,
but it wasn't a bad compromise.  If you are pulling away from that level
of compatibility without providing another switchover mechanism, you aren't
helping.

>Be aware however that combining the two distributions does have its
>drawbacks if you want to run the same binaries. The DIR_SEPARATOR and
>PATH_SEPARATORS are different in Gnu-Win32 and Mingw32, and there're good
>reasons why that is so. Also, the native mingw32 gcc and company runs an
>order of magnitude faster than the cygwin32 counterparts.
>
>One possible suggestion has been to change the directory hierarchy in
>mingw32 the same as cygwin32 (with H-i386-cygwin32 and H-i386-mingw32),
>and at least you can dump both under /usr; of course, you still have two
>copies of the same files such as the import libraries unless you fiddle
>with it afterwards, making sure your LIBRARY_PATH is set correctly.
>
This directory hierarchy is also a useless appendage.  It's much simpler
to set up a Unix file system on your C: drive, and do away with all that
H-i386-cygwin32 excrement.  This is a Unix environment, and all the GNU
utilities expect Unix directories.  So, why use the b18 directory structure,
that corresponds to nothing in the real world?

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