Brad Garton

I'm getting ready to do some Windows hacking this summer, and I have some 

1. In the past I've used cygwin, but I'd rather not have to deal with 

dragging around the cygwin1.dll any longer. Has anyone built externals 

using mingw? It also seems that cygwin has stopped developing, and mingw 

2. Anyone done much with the 'free' MS C/C++ compiler?

Bear in mind that I'm an old guy, and I actually enjoy coding using 

environments like vi + Makefiles. All these fancy IDE things give me the 

willies. Any recommendations are most welcome, though.

I'm getting ready to do some Windows hacking this summer, and I have some 
questions about compilers:

1.  In the past I've used cygwin, but I'd rather not have to deal with 
dragging around the cygwin1.dll any longer.  Has anyone built externals 
using mingw?  It also seems that cygwin has stopped developing, and mingw 
appears a bit more active.

2.  Anyone done much with the 'free' MS C/C++ compiler?

Bear in mind that I'm an old guy, and I actually enjoy coding using 
environments like vi + Makefiles.  All these fancy IDE things give me the 
willies.  Any recommendations are most welcome, though.

compiler-questions

Microsoft is actually giving away a version of Visual Studio. I've

verified that it works for making Max externals. I know it's an IDE

and you're a command-line guy, but I actually enjoy using it more than

any of the IDEs I've used on the Apple side... but maybe that's

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

Microsoft is actually giving away a version of Visual Studio.  I've
verified that it works for making Max externals.  I know it's an IDE
and you're a command-line guy, but I actually enjoy using it more than
any of the IDEs I've used on the Apple side... but maybe that's
damning it with faint praise!  :)

compiler questions