Eljay,
> What you are asking should be possible, but you'll want to have a GCC (not
a MinGW) compiler hosted on Windows that targets Linux.
If I understand correctly, gcc compiled for mingw gives you a gcc for
Windows--you can run it outside of msys--whereas gcc compiled with cygwin
must be used within the cygwin environment, which allows you to run any Unix
program. What difference does it make whether the compiler is a
gcc-for-mingw that targets Linux, or gcc-for-cygwin that targets Linux? I
can't see how it matters. It's just a question of how you run it, not what
comes out of it.
> What you won't be able to do is write a program that relies on the Windows
API, which will compile and run on Linux.
Non-issue. My program is a command-line c program. The input will be text
data from a Web-based form, the output will be text that I'll sent back to
the browser, formatted with HTML.
> I'm willing to wager that somewhere, someone is attempting to make Unix
version of the Windows API, that allows programs written with the Windows
API to be compiled and run on Linux. (This would be a different situation
than that provided by WINE, since the app would be specifically compiled for
the "Linux'd Win32 API".) If such an effort is underway, I'm not
in-the-know about it.
This isn't my goal at all. I do know a tool that does this, however. Borland
C++ Builder offers an API that can be used under either Windows or Linux.
You can compile programs using this API with their Kylix tool. But again,
this isn't my current interest.
> Anyway, getting back on topic. What you'll (probably) need is Cygwin
(www.cygwin.com), which is a Unix-like environment for Windows. It's FAR
superior to MKS or MS-Interix (aka Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 3.0).
I already have Cygwin installed. I installed this before I installed
msys/mingw. I went to msys because Cygwin didn't come with a binary compiler
(that I could find--people tell me it's there but I don't see it).
> Now let me guess your next question, "How do I make a GCC compiler for
Linux hosted on Cygwin/WinNT?" Ahem... ummm... I don't know. Anyone have a
useful URL or advice?
I imagine I could compile gcc under cygwin, just as I already did for mingw.
I'm not sure, however, that this gains me anything. As I said before, I
don't see how or why this would make a difference.
- Sheryl
