setup releases

[Paul G.]

Disclaimer:

	What follows is only the opinion of the writer (mailto: pgarceau@attbi.com) and should not be construed as 
having anything to do with policy or policy setting where Cygwin Applications or Cygwin Development is concerned.

On 27 May 2002 at 12:19, Nicholas Wourms wrote:

[snip]

> 
> Not to stir up controversy, but is there a reason why  the mingw 
> libstdc++.a and the symbolic link aren't setup by the installer?

	Shortage of Volunteer Power for Setup.exe.

	Other reasons?  See other replies.  Also note this is the "cygwin"-apps m/l, not cygwin-main m/l.

	Part of the assumption on this list is that you are capable of or have the potential for building your own 
Cygwin apps from scratch, or that you are porting something for Cygwin, not Mingw.  Another part of the assumption 
is that you know what the ramifications/"consequences" (for lack of a "softer" term) of actually using the -mno-cygwin 
switch.  Another part of that assumption is that Mingw (-mno-cygwin switch support) is a limited "feature" of Cygwin.

	Most of the controversy that does arise, arises because someone asked a question or made some sort of 
statement without fully reviewing the available documentation (yes, I have been known to be guilty of that).

	If you are wanting to not step on toes, or open old wounds, then a good assumption, at least on this m/l, is to 
be sure you have read all of the available documentation for a given subject that you might be asking about 
(including, in some cases, the available source code and cvs documented processes which are required for building 
something as complex as Setup.exe).

	Returning to the issue at hand (I digress):

	It's not as if setup can't be completely built with Mingw, it is just not the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) 
when it comes to the current build process(es) for Setup.exe.  Understanding what is required to actually build 
setup.exe is also an assumption when we are talking about any form of Setup.exe.

Re: Mingw (-mno-cygwin switch)

	As noted earlier, Mingw is a bonus/"feature" of Cygwin distribution that certain of us have spent a great deal 
of time and energy simply enabling, as a convenience, for some forms of C development (eg. setup.exe).

	What I did not note in my earlier statement (above) is this:  from what I can tell, -mno-cygwin is not equipped 
for C++ development (otc or off-the-shelf) unless, as some have already noted, you have specially prepped 
(prepared) your Cygwin environment to support such development.

	-mno-cygwin switch is not intended nor is it initially equipped to "officially" support C++ development under 
Cygwin.

Re:  Alternatives to using -mno-cygwin switch

	If you want full Mingw capability or desire to build anything more complex than C-language implementations 
using Mingw, than take a look at the mingw.org website

	You will find lots of documentation and tools there in terms of having a fully functioning Mingw 
(target=MINGW32), including all of the necessary runtime, etc. to enable a more or less complete libstdc++.a 
functionality and support (wrt Mingw) for either the 2.95.3 (stable) or the 3.1.1 (beta) release of gcc/g++ (available 
from Mingw site at Sourceforge.). 

	Both support libstdc++.a after installation.

In closing:

	If you want to build Cygwin (including C++) apps (with a few rare exceptions; exceptions which include 
setup.exe), or create/port new C++ implementations of some Cygwin (cygwin.dll) based app, then you should 
probably not worry about using the -mno-cygwin switch and concentrate on using the Cygwin tools without enabling 
or using the -mno-cygwin switch.

	If you are a new to Cygwin, C or C++ development then, save yourself a lot of headaches, do not use the -
mno-cygwin switch for Cygwin "gcc" or "g++".

	Paul G.
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