Large changes to the Win32 backend, partially made necessary by the

[~andy/gtk] / README.win32

diff --git a/README.win32 b/README.win32
index 3c5b5b40fc82447e547b36e9c508762b6265f746..0a0b1284fec1420880aaa38e732694e8eca8813b 100644 (file)
--- a/README.win32
+++ b/README.win32
@@ -3,26 +3,43 @@ correct as the Unix/X11 version. For more information about the Win32
 port, see http://www.gimp.org/tml/gimp/win32/ or
 http://www.iki.fi/tml/gimp/win32/ .
 
-To build GTk+ on Win32, you need either Microsoft compiler and tools,
-or gcc-2.95 or later running under cygwin-b20.1. Compile in gdk\win32
-and gtk with `nmake -f makefile.msc` or `make -f
-makefile.cygwin`. Before doing a install, check the BIN definition in
-gdk\win32\makefile.msc (or makefile.cygwin) and gtk\makefile.msc (or
-makefile.cygwin).
+The current (CVS) version of the Win32 backend is *not* as stable as it
+was before the no-flicker branch was merged. A zipfile with that
+version is available from http://www.gimp.org/win32/. That should be
+use by "production" code until this CVS version is usable. (But note,
+the Win32 backend has never been claimed to be "production quality".)
+
+To build GTk+ on Win32, you need either the Microsoft compiler and
+tools, or gcc-2.95 or later. The mingw setup of gcc is preferred, but
+you can run gcc also under cygwin-b20.1 or later. Compile in
+gdk\win32, gdk and gtk with `nmake -f makefile.msc` or `make -f
+makefile.cygwin`. The name makefile.cygwin is misleading, it should
+really be called makefile.mingw.
 
 See the README.win32 file in the GLib distribution for instructions
 how to build with gcc.
 
+To use GTk+ on Win32, you also need either of the above mentioned
+compilers. Other compilers might work, but don't count on it.  The
+same instructions on how to set up a correct version of gcc should
+also be followed if you want to build applications that use GTk+ with
+gcc.
+
 The tablet support uses the Wintab API. The Wintab development kit can
-be downloaded from http://www.pointing.com.
+be downloaded from http://www.pointing.com. If you don't care for
+that, undefine HAVE_WINTAB in config.h.win32 and remove references to
+the wntab32x library from the makefile before building.
 
-GTk+ wants to be built with the GNU gettext library for
+GTk+ wants to be built with the GNU "intl" library for
 internationalisation (i18n). Get the version ported to Win32 (not a
-very big deal) from tml's web site mentioned above. If you don't want
-any i18n stuff, undefine ENABLE_NLS, HAVE_GETTEXT and HAVE_LIBINTL in
-the config.h.win32 file, and remove references to the gnu-intl library
+very big deal) from tml's web site mentioned above. We build the
+"intl" library as a DLL called gnu-intl.dll (the "gnu" prefix is used
+to reduce name clash risks). If you don't want any i18n stuff,
+undefine ENABLE_NLS, HAVE_GETTEXT and HAVE_LIBINTL in the
+config.h.win32 file, and remove references to the gnu-intl library
 from the makefiles.
 
-Note that GNU gettext is under the GPL, not the LGPL like GTk+ or
-GLib. So, if GPL is a problem to you, follow the above advice to
-remove the use of gettext.
+Note that while the GNU gettext package is under the GPL, the "intl"
+part of it which is distributed with GNU libc is under the LGPL (like
+GTk+ or GLib). We want the LGPL one, even if they are the same, more
+or less.