Re: GCC 4.6 under MinGW

[Nicola Pero]

> if anyone is interested in using GCC 4.6 under MinGW, here is a precompiled 
> version:
> http://www.xvidvideo.ru/component/docman/cat_view/28-cross-mingwgcc-x86x64/183-cross-mingw-with-gcc-46-x86x64/188-experimental--pre-release.html

At a quick glance, GCC seems to have been compiled with --disable-shared.  That 
will produce an Objective-C runtime that is unfit for purpose on Windows;
it has to be compiled as a shared library to work.

... but, of course, you could use an existing Objective-C runtime already 
compiled as a DLL.  That should work; you just need to reconfigure and recompile
gnustep-make and gnustep-base (and everything else), keeping the runtime you 
already have. :-)


> I've tried to combine this with prebuilt binary of GNUstep for Windows, and 
> compile Zcode. Of course, that failed:
>   undefined reference to `objc_getPropertyStruct'
> I presume this is because runtime shipped with the above GCC 4.6 does not 
> support properties.

Just to clarify, the runtime shipped with GCC 4.6 fully supports properties (to 
the extent supported by GCC 4.6).  The undefined symbol
must arise as a consequence of a different problem; as you mention a 
"precompiled GNUstep" below, I'd suspect that the runtime from this
precompiled GNUstep is being used instead of the one from GCC 4.6.  I still 
suspect the one from 4.6 won't work (because of the --disable-shared
discussed above).

But you may just try to reconfigure/recompile gnustep-make and gnustep-base and 
see if that works, since gnustep-base should support
a compiler with property support mixed with a runtime without it, but you may 
need to reconfigure/recompile to get the new combination recognized
and things updated for it.

> Trying to compile with non-POSIX threading also fails:
> This is gnustep-make 2.6.0. Type 'make print-gnustep-make-help' for help.
> Making all for clibrary libobjc...
>  Linking clibrary libobjc ...
> Creating library file: ./obj/libobjc.dll.a
> obj/libobjc.obj/Object.m.o: In function `-[Object error:]':
> c:\Users\ivucica\Downloads\gnustep\libobjc/Object.m:329: undefined reference 
> to
> `__gnu_objc_personality_sj0'

This suggests a problem with native exceptions (which may hit you later on even 
if you don't compile the runtime); try configuring gnustep-make
with --disable-native-exceptions.  Just try to get it working in some way, then 
you can go back and try enabling native exceptions again. ;-)

I haven't tried GCC 4.6 on Windows yet myself; if I get access to a Windows 
machine, I'll try and update the instructions if needed.

Thanks