Re: [Tinycc-devel] Newcomer to TCC (and C) with a couple ofquestions..

[KHMan]

Kalle Olavi Niemitalo wrote:
> lostgallifreyan <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > You cite from MSDN... I take it this is because TCC defaults to
> > using MSVCRT? (Or, I read tonight, Kernel32.dll if the program
> > entry point was written to avoid using MSVCRT).
>
> The Windows GDI functions are in USER32 and GDI32, not MSVCRT.
> I cite from MSDN because Microsoft has designed the GDI functions
> (the first ones perhaps in cooperation with IBM, for OS/2?) and
> maintains them as part of Windows and gets to decide how they
> work.

Apart from the links to Win32 help files that grischka has 
mentioned, a alternative that is a little more up-to-date is the 
"PlatformSDK_Svr2003R2_rtm" ISO (just do a Google search). It's 
nicely packaged (self-contained, unlike a lot of other similar 
downloads) and small (~400MB) compared to the latest SDKs (>1GB). 
It installs MSDN-style Win32 API documentation that uses a 
CHM-like browser, good enough if you are not aiming for the latest 
APIs (it has pre-Win2K info up to WinXP info, but no Vista) and 
does not want to use MSVC++ Express.

> [snip snip]
> > And that means I'm not sure how I should write any GDI
> > oriented code if I want it to compile on Linux. I'd thought the
> > same might apply to both.
>
> Ah, you mentioned GDI resources in your original post, so I
> assumed you were intending the program to run on Windows only.
> If it needs to run on Linux too, then you could perhaps use
> Winelib <http://www.winehq.org/site/winelib>, which I believe
> implements the Windows GDI functions on Linux.  Alternatively,
> use some cross-platform graphics API such as GDK
> <http://library.gnome.org/devel/gdk/> or SDL
> <http://www.libsdl.org/> or even OpenGL; at least these three
> should be usable from C without C++, and thus presumably with
> TCC.  However, if you are already familiar with GDI and have a
> lot of code that uses it, then switching to a different API may
> require too much work.

Given the lack of knowledge of the OP in these nitty-gritty 
details, I would like to suggest that the OP use a standard C/C++ 
compiler like MinGW on Win32. Say as a beginner, you just want to 
write an application, so do stick to a compiler that is already 
well-tested like MinGW (on Win32), or say you want to write an app 
really quickly, you can use the wxLua that was mentioned earlier 
(which uses wxWidgets, a good commercial-quality and mature 
cross-platform widget set, and you develop in C++).

But of course, if the OP has unlimited amounts of time at his 
disposal, by all means try TCC and help with the development and 
use of TCC. I am a little worried that the OP might be trying to 
bite off more than he can chew -- if he is new to C, then I don't 
think he should be using TCC at all, it's not a production-quality 
compiler. Stick to the ubiquitous gcc.

--
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia