[LAD] [OT] questions re: cross-compiling

Kjetil S. Matheussen k.s.matheussen at notam02.no
Thu Nov 15 21:54:57 UTC 2007


Christian Schoenebeck cuse at users.sourceforge.net:
>Am Donnerstag, 15. November 2007 18:51:30 schrieb Kjetil S. Matheussen:
>> *The msys terminal is a lot nicer than xterm
>> *msys/mingw uses fewer resources than cygwin
>> *mingw executables requires fewer dlls and are easier to
>>   distribute
>> *mingw executables can be linked with non-cygwin dll's.
>>
>> disadvantages:
>> *msys/mingw is messy to set up. Check out the FAQ first.
>> *msys/mingw is very messy to upgrade.
>>   (manually unpacking .tar files into the file tree)
>> *msys doesn't provide the same amount of unix tools.
>> *mingw executables can not be linked with cygwin dll's.
>
>That's not a real either/or question. Mingw is part of Cygwin as well:
>
>	http://cygwin.com/packages/
>
>So you can easily setup and update both with just a few clicks in the 
>cygwin
>install utility.

Sure, but then you have to use the -mno-cygwin option to gcc
when compiling, which sometimes can be tricky. So my comparison
above is still valid, and you don't need cygwin to run mingw.

The msys terminal is very nice, and I don't see any reason
to fire up the whole cygwin[1] beast to compile a native
windows app now and then, unless you need something in
cygwin which is not provided by msys of course.

I also think its messy to mix the mingw and cygwin
environments, since they are not compatible. Its easy to
link with libraries of the other type (ie. compiling
with mingw and link with cygwin libraries, or compiling
with cygwin and link with mingw libraries), and then
strange things can happen. Its better to keep the two
environments in separate installations if you can.
At least thats my experience.

[1] X running inside windows is required to make working
with cygwin somewhat comfortable


>One thing I wonder is whether mingw has any disadvantages regarding 
>compiler
>optimizations?

No, that would be very strange.


> You know the term "minimalistic" in its name raises such
>doubts.

I wouldn't worry about that. Gcc is gcc.




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