From: malcolm AT manawatu DOT gen DOT nz (Malcolm Taylor) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: Adding Windows Support? Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 06:05:31 GMT Organization: PlaNet (NZ) Manawatu, +64 6 357-9245, +64 6 367-9944 Lines: 47 Message-ID: <55mi0g$e6m@news.manawatu.gen.nz> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp64-139.manawatu.gen.nz Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Apparently-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Eli Zaretskii wrote: >On 1 Nov 1996, Joel Hardy wrote: >> I tried to use DJGPP for Windows programs, but RSX just didn't cut >> it (especially with the GPL). I want to get rid of MSVC, but I need to >> program a little for Windows. I'd love to add Windows support to DJGPP, >> but I'm running a bit low on info and time. I know the Windows .EXE file >> format a little, but it will take MUCH more than that to get anything >> working (e.g. imports/exports in libraries for DLLs). Does anybody want >> to help me? Once DJGPP supports Windows, there's no reason (except for >> parts of C++ being under the GPL) that DJGPP wouldn't become one of the >> most popular C compilers (think about it: if it had basically the same >While I cannot unfortunately get myself involved in the above project >(mainly because I don't know enough about Windows intricacies), I would >like to point out that IMHO this is a very important initiative and I >urge everybody who can take part in such a project to do so. As many >others, I have come to not trust an environment which doesn't make its >sources readily available, mainly because without sources, there are >bugs/problems which you cannot solve. Making DJGPP compatible with >Windows programming means bringing free tools to an environment which >currently lacks them (give or take the Cygnus project). Well, there is a document somewhere around that describes the Win32 PE/COFF format. I do not have this anymore, but I did send it to a few people a while ago (can't remember quite who, Bill Currie maybe?). This will help overcome the first main hurdle, generating PE/COFF EXE/DLL files that Win95/NT can load. I have considered this project, and done a fair amount of research. I am willing to help anyone wanting to setup and 'lead' a project into this, unfortunately I cannot do this myself as I don't have the time. A good template for the management of this project would be the DLM project. This project would require a lot of discussion, and a seperate mailing list would be very benificial. Anyone able to set that up? It would save a lot of esoteric traffic on this list/newsgroup. Basicly it's a _very_ large project waiting for someone to lead it. The project would consist of enabling the generation of PE/COFF format (ie. write a new linker, change LD or make a COFF-GO32 to PE/COFF converter), writing header files, writing startup code, modifying the libc.a to work under Windows (maybe a new lib), finding a freeware resource compiler ... Malcolm