[gcompris-devel] Windows port Re: refresh bug in the canvas

[Christof Petig]

[I deleted some CCs which I considered unnecessary.]

Bruno Coudoin wrote:
> Christof, could you give us the task to accomplish to do the port and if
> available some fine manuals howto. That would help us evaluate the task
> and perhaps one of us will try it.

Alternative:
- compiling on debian GNU/Linux: Install mingw32, mingw32-runtime, 
mingw32-binutils. Perhaps you need at least libtool 1.5 (which is not 
yet available on debian?) for easy dll building support. Sadly the 
packages are slightly old (out of date?) but should wprk well enough.

- compiling on other Linux flavors: Look for the cross compile 
instructions from the SDL or Mingw sourceforge project (it's not that 
difficult, really). There's a script to automate that task.

- compiling on Windows: Install either MinGW+MSys or cygwin. Your 
mileage wrt libtool might vary (cygwin is reportedly best here, but make 
sure to create -mno-cygwin binaries!)

- compiling with MS VC ... ask somebody else and do not expect your 
findings to be valuable to a broader community. Expect yourself to be 
the only one on earth able to build that binary (Others with VC and your 
project files might have success, too), every change to a makefile will 
need a new port. And expect to be flamed to death for trying.

----

- Test the compiler to create a working .exe file (e.g. hello world)
- Install Tor's gtk packages (http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32 )
[see also the installer and helpful links on 
http://members.lycos.co.uk/alexv6/ ]

- Try to compile and run a simple gtk test program (I had no success to 
run it under Linux with Wine, but remember I'm on powerpc and have to 
emulate an i?86  8-O )

- Look for a canvas port to Win32 (I think that 
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/dia_win32.htm will help here)

- Cover any other build dependancies (Linux as a build environment will 
help here, e.g. intltool etc.)

- Try to build gcompris by "hand" (autogen.sh, make, add a commandline 
switch here and there, dlltool? gcc -shared? ...). Certainly more 
problems will pop up here. I expect the dynamic board loader to be a 
problem, but libltdl (part of libtool) might help here. Remember: 
Windows .dlls need all symbols resolved at build time, Linux .so 
resolves symbols at load time.

This should give you a working gcompris.exe. The shipment of the binary 
should start with a .zip (experts can review it this way). But normal 
users expect the infamous self installing .exe. NSIS (more free) or Inno 
Setup can help here. Sorry, I have no experience here.

    Christof