Re: [Caml-list] GODI news

[Dmitry Bely <dbely@mail.ru>]

Matt Gushee <matt@gushee.net> writes:

>> > Why Cygwin, rather than MinGW?
>> > 
>> Simple answer: It is unwise to do the second step before the first.
>> Using Cygwin means that you have a full POSIX environment (Unix tools,
>> libraries), but there are already typical Windows problems, e.g.
>> filename conventions, CRLF, etc. Solve these first!
>
> Okay. I trust that you know what you are talking about, but I still
> don't really understand. By saying "there are already ..." are you
> implying that the "typical Windows problems" become worse when using
> MinGW?

No. But in case of MinGW/MSVC you have a bunch of other problems: no
configure scripts, different Ocaml compilation process (manual editing of
config files, makefile.nt instead of makefile) etc. As GODI has come from
UNIX world, cygwin (or maybe MSYS) is the only chance to use it under
Windows.


> And further, are these problems that can actually be solved,
> or simply worked around.
>
>> For the build environment, it is unlikely that we ever get rid of
>> Cygwin.
>
> I thought that MinGW came with gcc, gnu make, and so on. Am I mistaken,
> or are they poorly implemented, or what?

AFAIK sh needed to run configure scripts simply does not exist in the
"native" form (as well as many other gnu utilities). Its design is based on
fork() syscall that cannot be easily emulated under Win32.

Of course, a packaging tool entirely written in Ocaml would be preferable,
but it will probably require too much efforts. So UNIX-style tool is better
than nothing.

- Dmitry Bely


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