Re: compiling emacs using cygwin

[Eric Hanchrow]

    Eric Hanchrow wrote:
    > You seem to be trying to build a "native Windows" binary, as opposed
    > to a Cygwin binary.  Is that right?
    I am not quite sure. 

Well, that would be a good thing to know :-)  The native Windows
binary and the Cygwin binary are significantly different -- for one
thing, the Cygwin binary runs as an X11 client; the native Windows
binary doesn't.  They treat file names differently, too, and there are
lots of other differences.
                         
    I was attempting to use cygwin to compile it and I presumed that
    this will produce a native windows binary.  

You can build both flavors with Cygwin; not surprisingly, the steps
you go through differ depending on which flavor you want.
                                                
    I have used MingW will reasonable success.  It produces an emacs
    from the nt version which runs on win XP but its appearance looks
    a bit shoddy, as thought it only uses 16 colours.  

I've never seen that; the version that I build from MinGW looks fine
to me (although I must admit I'm color-blind :-).
                                                       
    I presume that this is because I did not included any image
    support stuff like the link you mentioned does suggest.

I doubt that's relevant.  I think "Image support stuff" allows Emacs
to display, e.g., jpeg images when you visit the .jpeg file, rather
than simply displaying the bytes in the file.  I doubt it has anything
to do with, say, the colors of the background, or fonts, or menus.

    > If you want to build a Cygwin binary, install gcc 4 from source (yes,
    > that's a pain, but it works "out of the box") and then build Emacs
    > with the usual Unix-style "./configure; make" (i.e., use ./configure
    > instead of nt/configure.bat).

    This is a bit of a problem to install gcc4 from source because the
    setup utility only goes up to version 3.4.4

I think you misunderstood me.  I didn't mean "run the Cygwin setup
program and ask it to install the source for version 4 of gcc"; I
instead meant "Download 'gcc-core-4.1.2.tar.bz2' from
savannah.gnu.org, and unpack it with 'tar jxvf'".

    I have a few questions
         1.  How do I discover the version of my gcc without going to the
    setup utility?

Type "gcc --version".  The --version switch works for many programs,
not just gcc.

         2.  Is there anywhere on the net which gives me a "hold your
    hand" guide to compiling gcc from source on cygwin.  

Not specifically for Cygwin, that I know of, but the source includes a
directory named INSTALL full of instructions.  Here's my summary:

* create an empty directory and 'cd' to it
* run the 'configure' script from the source directory
* type 'make bootstrap'
* get coffee
* type 'make install'

    I have found for linux but not unixy shells.

I can't guess what you meant by that.

         3.  I have looked for a good introduction to unix via cygwin but
    have not found any useful stuff for the beginner.  Any suggestions?

Nope.  Cygwin is quirky, and using it well pretty much requires that
you have the Unix basics down.

If you don't mind spending lots of time experimenting and learning,
then keep on with your goal of building Emacs from source.  But if
you're in a hurry, I suggest you use the binaries at ntemacs.sf.net;
they're ready to run.

-- 
Keaton, Chaplin, Garbo - let them now make room for Gromit.
        A. O. Scott, in The New York Times