New WIN32 binaries uploaded

Wed, 25 Jun 1997 20:50:13 +0100 (WET DST)

Hello,

A new GPC binary distribution, corresponding to GPC-970624 (2.1-beta1) for
cygwin32-b18 has been uploaded to:

ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/home/janjaap/cygwin32

The file to get is: gpc-970624.i386-cygwin32-b18.zip

I included the corresponding tools (cygwin.dll, as, ld etc.) and
documentation in windows .HLP files.

NEWS: 

1) You can now build DLL's with GPC. A sample is included.

2) The broken examples work again.


GPC related notes:

1) The "winapi" macro is not in the compiler (yet) so you still have to
   {$define WINAPI(X) asmname X; attribute(stdcall)}

2) "function attributes" get lost in the GPI machanism, so you cannot
   export them from a unit (or DLL)


Cygwin32 related problems:

1) On win95, building a DLL may not work because of garbage in the DLL.
   A solution (don't laugh!) : defrag the disk and make sure the option
   "wipe empty diskspace" is checked.

2) Linking against kernel32 *twice* will result in segfaulting apps. the
   previous alpha-gpc's demos suffered from this.

3) Linking GUI apps gives a harmless message:
   ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _WinMainCRTStartup; defaulting to 00401000
   There's an `ld' option to suppress this, but I have forgotten it.


Things to come:

1) Build the RTS as a DLL --> smaller applications.

2) Switch to mingw32 ?? The programs you build would be faster and not
   depend on cygwin.dll.

3) Start a web page to publish the latest developments.


Happy hacking,

JanJaap

---
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going
to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly
overhead.  -- RFC1925.

Jan-Jaap van der Heijden (janjaap@Wit381304.student.utwente.nl)