GCC-2.95.2 for Mingw (i386-mingw32) -- Release information

===================================================================



Release date: Nov 7, 1999.



I'm pleased to announce prebuilt gcc-2.95.2 packages for GNU Mingw

(i386-mingw32). 



What are the various packages?

  

  gcc-2.95.2: GNU Compilers for C, C++, ObjC, F77 plus the the respective 

    runtime libraries. Also includes binutils-2.9.4 (distributed with

    Cygwin B20.1), Mingw runtime 1999-11-07, Anders Norlander's w32api

    (slightly modified), GDB version 4.18, MAKE version 3.77.



    Unlike previous releases where I have provided an MSVCRT add-on,

    this release contains full distributions of CRTDLL and MSVCRT;

    you choose which one (or both!) you want. If you get both, do

    install each in a different directory.

  

  mingw32-docs-html: Provides the documentation in HTML format. Contains

    documentation for GCC 2.95.2, Binutils 2.9.4, GDB 4.18 and Make 3.77.



  All the packages are distributed as self-extracting executables instead

  of .ZIP files to avoid the issue of having the "correct" unzip utility.



What's New?



  GCC: 2.95.2 (obviously), with some Mingw specific patches. Highlights:

    - deals correctly when installed in pathname with spaces in it.

    - correct #pragma pack handling.

    - preliminary COM support.

    - anonymous structs and unions in C, and anonymous structs in C++.

    - thread-safe C++ exception support.

    - support creation of "shared" segments via the "shared" attribute so 

      that multiple running copies can share data variables. 

    - ignores GNAT installed registry keys, and can not coexist with GNAT.

  

  Mingw runtime:

    - profiling support! Compile/Link with -pg option, run, and then

      use gprof (included in distribution). See binutils documentation

      for more on gprof usage.

    - Many many fixes to headers. Added many wide character prototypes,

      but still quite incomplete.

    - Helper DLL for thread-safe C++ exception support. To enable MT

      C++ support, you must compile and link using -mthreads option,

      and your application will need mingwm10.dll (MSVCRT version) or 

      mingwc10.dll (CRTDLL version). 

  

  w32api:

    - Based on Anders Norlander's 0.2 snapshot, with lots of changes for

      COM and OLE. Fixes to missing ``extern "C"'' guards, and incorrect

      packing for some of the headers.

    - Stub winsock2.h header; very incomplete, which hopefully lots of 

      applications won't notice.



What's not in this package?

  

  libg++: Sorry, I stopped distributing libg++ a while back. If you

    need it, see the gcc-2.95.2 FAQ (see the "LINKS" section for URL) and 

    build it yourself.



Where?

  

  Web: http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32/

  FTP: ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/gcc-2.95.2/



  Please visit the web page before you attempt to download/install. It

  may address problems you might run into.



Installation? 



  See the INSTALL file for instructions. It's basically a matter of

  unpacking the various packages that you may need.



Disk space?

   

  About 24M, give or take a few.



MSVCRT vs CRTDLL runtimes?

  

  The CRTDLL distribution links with and uses CRTDLL.DLL, which is

  guaranteed to be on *every* W95/NT system shipped; the MSVCRT

  distribution links with and uses MSVCRT.DLL, which is distributed

  with all new Win9x/NT systems. MSVCRT runtime is faster and better

  debugged, but do keep in mind that Mingw/MSVCRT is perhaps not as 

  well tested as Mingw/CRTDLL, simply because a large fraction of the 

  installed user-base uses the CRTDLL version.



Where are the rest of the utilities, such as make and gdb?

  

  GDB version 4.18 is distributed with gcc-2.95.2 binaries, and so is

  MAKE version 3.77. Jan-Jaap has made most of the other tools available 

  from his site, and I see no reason to duplicate them. His site is

  listed in the "Related Sites" on my web page cited below. 



Where to report bugs?



  Report compiler bugs to GCC bugs mailing list. See GCC homepage (URL

  below in LINKS section) for information on how to submit bug reports.

  There is a Mingw list http://www.egroups.com/lists/mingw32/ as well.

  Please always copy me on the bug reports, wherever you choose to send

  those.



Links?

  

  GNU Compilers    : http://gcc.gnu.org/

  My stuff         : http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32/



Regards,

Mumit -- khan@xraylith.wisc.edu

http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/



