Re: Upgrading XP machine to run gcc

deltaseq0 wrote:

So I can install cygwin and gcc under it and create executables that will run under a Linux environment or another Windows cygwin environment but not a Windows environment unless I use cygwin to compile my own gcc-like compiler to do so. Close to being right? How much of a learning curve (weeks? months?) is there for a retired chemical engineer to learn to do that? It sounds as if I would be very close to learning how to operate in the Linux environment. Could I also just as easily partition my hard drive and install Linux to do the same things?
You would need to make your own gcc/gfortran cross compiler for each case of compiling and running on different OS. You're more likely to find help for making a cross compiler which compiles on linux, and your experiments would go much faster. You would want to build the native compilers as a first step. Most people have found even that a several day learning process on Windows.
Most current linux distributions have self-contained facilities for disk partitioning and installing dual boot on a Windows system. This certainly is the way to go if you're interested in trying gcc/g++/gfortran on linux. With gcc-4.2.1 about to be released, it shouldn't be difficult to upgrade to a satisfactory current version.
In case you're interested, I'll point out that certain commercial compilers for linux aren't fully compatible with gcc-4.2 (no binary compatibility for C++). This stems from similar incompatibility between g++-4.1 and 4.2.

A minimal risk approach might be to install and work with gfortran while waiting for Mingw to update to gcc 4.2.0, or installing cygwin or linux, or installing the unofficial experimental Mingw-gcc update.

The gfortran wiki distributions are an excellent service. I would install cygwin and add the wiki compilers.
I have only 2 reasons for making cygwin compilers from source:
a) to test g++ with gfortran
b) hoping to contribute to making gcc development compatible with Windows. There is no chance of cygwin adopting gfortran without g++.

I dedicate an old 32-bit P4 to building cygwin gcc and CD/DVD burning, killing the network connection so it doesn't get interrupted.
.

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