Windows GCC Development

[trojanfoe]

I would recommend Microsoft's own compilers rather than cygwin, etc. as it avoids many incompatibility issues and they produce faster code.

The Windows 7 SDK comes with C++ compilers and they appear to be the same as supplied with Visual Studio (not the non-optimizing ones they used to distribute with the cut-down VS).

If you need an IDE then you could try Code::Blocks.

Windows 7 SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... px?id=3138
Code::Blocks: http://www.codeblocks.org/

EDIT: Oops; I missed that Jon Dart had already posted almost the exact same reply.

[Don]

I would recommend Microsoft's own compilers rather than cygwin, etc. as it avoids many incompatibility issues and they produce faster code.

I recommend not using cygwin, but if want a free compiler use mingw. Recent versions appear to generate code that is just as fast or even faster than MS or Intel compilers. Your mileage may vary ....

The Windows 7 SDK comes with C++ compilers and they appear to be the same as supplied with Visual Studio (not the non-optimizing ones they used to distribute with the cut-down VS).

If you need an IDE then you could try Code::Blocks.

Windows 7 SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... px?id=3138
Code::Blocks: http://www.codeblocks.org/

EDIT: Oops; I missed that Jon Dart had already posted almost the exact same reply.

[rbarreira]

cygwin by default comes with a very old version of gcc. But if you look around the available packages during installation there is a package for gcc 4.5. Perhaps that gets as much performance as mingw.

[lucasart]

cygwin by default comes with a very old version of gcc. But if you look around the available packages during installation there is a package for gcc 4.5. Perhaps that gets as much performance as mingw.

it's just so much easier to generate a windows executable on liniux uwing mingw. just download mingw, and compile the same way replacing "gcc" by "mingw". and gcc 4.6 is a must, especially with the introduction of link time optimizations. i have yet to see any tangible proof that microsoft's compiler beats gcc 4.6 !
also, as explained by Don, if you compile on linux using mingw, you need not soil your hands or compromise your integrity by using windows

[jshriver]

Thanks for all the info. Was surprised to see mingw and mingw-64 right in the Ubuntu repositories. Will start with that.

Still may try the Windows SDK just as a learning experience. Never hurts to learn new things

Is ICC still actively being developed? Last time I tried it (under linux) was circa early 2000's. After a lot of testing it always created faster builds of crafty and a couple other engines.

I'm far from worrying about compiler specific builds for tournament ready play but good to keep in the back of my mind.

[Don]

Thanks for all the info. Was surprised to see mingw and mingw-64 right in the Ubuntu repositories. Will start with that.

Still may try the Windows SDK just as a learning experience. Never hurts to learn new things

Is ICC still actively being developed? Last time I tried it (under linux) was circa early 2000's. After a lot of testing it always created faster builds of crafty and a couple other engines.

I'm far from worrying about compiler specific builds for tournament ready play but good to keep in the back of my mind.

Also, PGO works well with GCC and mingw. Older versions of the compiler had PGO, but it gave almost no improvement - but that has changed.

As someone already mentioned, make sure you have at least version 4.6

Don

[lucasart]

Thanks for all the info. Was surprised to see mingw and mingw-64 right in the Ubuntu repositories. Will start with that.

Oh yes, I hadn't noticed it was in the repo. And it's using gcc 4.6.1 !!