README.win32 - Building FLTK under Windows
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Last Update: May 2009 for release 1.1.10
INTRODUCTION
This document is split into two main sections. The first
describes several possible build environments, while the
second describes some of the issues associated with using
the GNU-like build configurations in the "makefiles"
subdirectory.
FLTK currently supports the following development
environments on the Windows platform:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, VC2005 and VC.NET using the
supplied workspace and project files. Be sure to get
your service packs!
- Borland C++ Builder 5 and 6 using the supplied IDE
files. These files are not as actively maintained as
the VC and GNU versions, so may not work for you.
- Watcom. There is a partial solution for the Watcom
toolchain. It is no longer actively maintained.
- GNU toolsets (Cygwin or MinGW) hosted on Windows
9x/2000/NT/XP.
This remainder of this document gives a brief overview of
compiling and using FLTK with the Cygwin and MinGW compiler
toolkits. Both toolkits provide a build environment based
around the GNU C/C++ compiler. Further information is
available from the FLTK website at http://www.fltk.org, such
as this Howto note: http://www.fltk.org/articles.php?L598
The Cygwin build environment supplies a library (the Cygwin
DLL) that is primarily intended to provide a number of
Unix-like POSIX facilities for programs being ported to the
Windows environment (Win32 or WinNT). Cygwin also supplies
a very Unix-like build environment for Windows, including
the "BASH" Bourne-compatible shell and all of the standard
Unix file utilities (ls, cat, grep, etc.).
Cygwin is developed by Cygnus (now part of RedHat, Inc).
Although provided for free download under the GPL,
distributing programs that require the Cygwin DLL under a
license other than the GPL requires a commercial license for
the Cygwin DLL. Native Windows programs that do not require
the Cygwin DLL (compiled and linked with the "-mno-cygwin"
option) may be released under any license freely.
The MinGW distribution (Minimalist GNU for Windows) provides
a similar toolset but geared solely towards native Windows
development without the Unix-like POSIX library. The lack of
any libraries under the GPL or any other restrictive license
means that programs built with the MinGW environment may
always be released under any license freely. MinGW also
supplies a Unix-like build environment for Windows,
including MSYS (a Bourne-compatible shell) and the standard
Unix file utilities (ls, cat, grep, etc.)
If you are not familiar with these GNU-like toolkits please
refer to the links section later in this note. In particular,
check out their license conditions carefully before use.
THE TOOLS
There are currently three main configurations supported by
FLTK with the GNU tools:
1. Cygwin: Built using the Cygwin toolset and using the
Unix-like POSIX compatibility layer provided by the
Cygwin DLL.
2. Cygwin using the "-mno-cygwin" option: Built using
the Cygwin toolset but not using the Cygwin DLL.
3. MinGW: Built using the MinGW utilities, compiler and
tools. This is, in many aspects, analogous to the
Cygwin "-mno-cygwin" option.
RECOMMENDED BUILD ENVIRONMENTS
Our recommendation is to:
1. Get the current Cygwin toolset.
This can either produce executables that do or do not
rely on the Cygwin DLL (check licensing) at your choice.
2. Get the latest MinGW toolset. It is recommended that you
also get the MSYS shell and the msysDTK developer toolset.
This will only produce normal Windows native executables
without any Unix or POSIX compatibility layer.
See the links section below for more information.
Either option can generate windows-native executables and
option 1 can provide a Unix-like POSIX portability layer that
is reliant on a GPLed library.
See the later sections for detailed information about using
one of these configurations.
LINKS
The following links may be of use:
1. Main Cygwin homepage:
http://www.cygwin.com/
2. Main Mingw homepage:
http://www.mingw.org/
In particular look for the MinGW FAQ at this link for
a lot of useful Mingw-native development
documentation.
3. Check out the FLTK newsgroups at the FLTK homepage:
http://www.fltk.org/
Its archival search facilities are EXTREMELY useful
to check back through previous problems with this
sort of configuration before posting new questions.
4. Carl Thompson (member of the core team responsible
for FLTK):
http://www.carlthompson.net/
A pre-bundled development toolset tailored for use
with an earlier version of FLTK may be found at:
http://www.carlthompson.net/cygwin/
However, this has not been actively maintained since
the Cygwin and MinGW offerings are now more complete
these days.
5. GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) compiler homepage:
http://gcc.gnu.org/
6. OpenGL page - for OpenGL and GLUT libs
http://www.opengl.org/
BUILDING FLTK WITH CYGWIN OR MINGW
Please read chapter 1 of the FLTK Programmers Manual for
compilation instructions.
WHY DOES A CONSOLE WINDOW APPEAR WHEN I RUN MY PROGRAM?
Windows has a flag that determines whether an application
runs in the foreground with a console or in the background
without a console. Use the "-mwindows" option to make your
application run in the background and "-mconsole" to run in
the foreground.
Keep in mind that a windows application cannot send output
to stdout, even if you run it from an existing console
application.
(Note: A special case of this exists if running a MinGW
application from the command line of an MSYS shell, when an
application is able to write to stdout, even if compiled with
"-mwindows".)
HOW DO I GET OPENGL TO WORK?
Both builds should automatically support OpenGL.
The configuration file config.h has a number of settings
which control compile-time compilation. One such setting is
"HAVE_GL". This may be set to 0 to disable Open GL operation.
Changing the line in config.h to
#define HAVE_GL 1
will change this to compile and link in OpenGL.