MingW compiler (!) and Ocaml for Windows

MingW compiler (!) and Ocaml for Windows

[Markus E L]

Hi Caml riders,

I'd like to ask wether anybody knows about the status of using the
native Win32 port built with Mingw with the standalone MingW compilers
instead of the Cygwin/MingW compilers.

Until recently my state of awareness was what's been written in
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-3.10/notes/README.win32:

   "Do *not* install the Mingw/MSYS development tools from www.mingw.org:
   these are not compatible with this Caml port (@responsefile not
   recognized on the command line)."

Rather accidentally (sourced wrong paths :-) I recently used MinGW
compilers with ocamlopt -- and it worked! I was only partially
suprised, since I've seen patches to MingW gcc floating around
(something like one and a half year ago) that added the
"@responsefile" feature.

Since then I tested a bit more (only with relatively small programs
but also with lablgtk) and it worked for me every time.

Now the question: Would I see the "@responsefile" problem on the first
attempt or are response files only used in certain situations I
perhaps haven't met yet? Can anybody say anything on wether ocamlopt
now works with the MingW compilers (or better wether the MingW
compilers now work with ocamlopt)?

If on the other side problems with "@responsefile" are only occuring
in more rare situation -- can anybody tell me how to provoke the
problem? (Then I'd perhaps be suffieciently interested to try in the
long run to port the missing features from CygWin/MingW to standalone
MingW).

Regards - Markus

PS: I'm using a recent "stable" MingW and the MingW build of ocaml
    3.09.

Re: [Caml-list] MingW compiler (!) and Ocaml for Windows

[Adrien]

Hi,

I've been using ocaml under mingw for some time now and haven't
encountered problems with the compilation and installation of ocaml
(3.09). The vast majority of modules and programs can be compiled and
used directly but of course, some needs modifications which are
usually trivials.
I've had problems with findlib installation which is used for many
modules though. In fact, they're not big deals, just a sum of small
problems : quoting a filename and having proper environment variables
among and a third one I can't remember.

I really want ocaml to run at 100% under mingw (I've had traumatizing
experiences with cygwin ;p ) but I don't have time right now and I
first need to format my computer in order to reorganize the partitions
(moreover I just killed my mingw...).


> If on the other side problems with "@responsefile" are only occuring
> in more rare situation -- can anybody tell me how to provoke the
> problem? (Then I'd perhaps be suffieciently interested to try in the
> long run to port the missing features from CygWin/MingW to standalone
> MingW).

If there's anything I can check, tell me too. =)


---

Adrien Nader

How do I reproduce the problem with @responsfile with ocamlopt and mingw gcc?

[Markus E L]

Hi Caml riders,

Since my last request didn't get any answers or pointers to other
information so far, I'm taking the liberty to repost the central
question with a subject more to the point.

As I already wrote:

http://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-3.10/notes/README.win32 says:

   "Do *not* install the Mingw/MSYS development tools from www.mingw.org:
   these are not compatible with this Caml port (@responsefile not
   recognized on the command line)."


So there is purportedly a problem using ocamlopt with MingW/MSYS. It
might be that the problem already "went away" in the due progress of
MingW development, or maybe id didn't.

How can I reproduce the problem if it still exists with current
MingW/MSYS? Is trying to ocamlopt-compile a hello_world.ml enough?

Regards -- Markus

PS: Sorry for my impatience. It occured to me that the subject might
    have been misleading since it doesn't show that I really have a
    question to ask.