Re: [Mingw-users] Re: [gimpwin-dev] glib under mingw32 debian crosscompiler, problem with windres : gmodule-win32res.lo: file not recognized:File format not recognized

[Christof Petig <christof petig-baender de>]

[Summary: Cygwin is good to compile programs on win32 with minimal 
porting effort, but a stable port should use MinGW]

James Michael DuPont schrieb:
> I am after using the DIA toolkit as a scriptable, browser enabled, 
> graphing  layout tool. Also under windows, but more importantly under
> linux. 
> 
> I only got involved in the port to windows when I wanted to try the
> python bindings with python 2.2 and noticed that I was in DLL HELL.
> 
> After writing to hans and dia for help, i decided to follow the
> instructions and compile, but wanted to do so under cygwin, because
> most of the gnome libs was ported to windows by steven o'brien.

Hi James,

To introduce me:
I ported magus [ http://midgard.berlios.de ] (a gtk[mm] application) to 
Windows, so I think I know a bit about the subject. (Also I'm maintainer 
of glademm, so I'm familiar to the gnome project)

I really recommend against a cygwin environment for 'native' Windows 
programs intended for a broader audience ...

... because no ordinary Windows user will ever enjoy unix-style file 
names for loading and saving his/her documents. [We even switched to the 
native 'Explorer' for file selection after a bit of discussion]
... because X11 clients feel alien to Windows users at best

In short: Most Windows users do not like a POSIX environment, which is 
what cygwin is supposed to provide.

That's why we decided to bite the bullet and switch to MinGW/MSys & 
Tor's gtk dlls. And it's really not trivial to tell cygwin to generate 
pure (aka non-cygwin) win32 binaries/dlls (I failed a couple of times, 
but remember that was one year ago, the environment should have improved).

Apart from that I'm not aware of any working cygwin gtk dlls (apart from 
the X11 based ones). I also tried one year ago and failed ...

I wish you all the best for porting dia to windows! But I simply don't 
think that this way (using cygwin) would get you there.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the Gtk/MinGW/MSys combination.
     Christof

PS: I also learned that most Windows users prefer an exe (made by an 
installer) over a zip. I'd recommend inno setup.