Re: Cross-compile to Windows NT
On Fri, 17 Jul 1998, Michael Laing wrote:
> I have a large utility program that I need to run under NT - is there a
> cross-compiler for this purpose?
>
> Thanks,
> Michael
>
>
Yeah, 'gcc' (assuming it is written in C).
Cross-compiling really means compiling a set of source files into an
executable image that will run on a platform with a different CPU. This
is very common in the embedded systems business (my work) in which you do
software development on a Unix workstation, (less preferably) WinNT, or
(even less perferably) some other box but the computer you are programming
is something like a simgle board computer with a different CPU (like a
Motorola 68040, 68360, 860, 68HC11, etc., etc.). The compiler running on
the development workstation emits an executable image for the specific CPU
that your target (the single board computer) is equiped with.
You are really talking about using a 'native' compiler, one that emits an
executable image for the same hardware architecture that it is being
compiled on, and 'porting' your program to a different OS. So, you get
your source files on the NT box and use your compiler/interpreter of
choice (you haven't told us what language your program is written in) to
cause that source to be converted into an executable image (this is the
compiling and linking stages). We use the word 'port' to indicate that
the software probably won't run unchanged on the new OS depending upon the
extent to which OS facitilities are used and the difference between those
facilities on the original OS vs. the new OS. I've written a LOT of Unix
stuff (mostly for Sun OSs) and a LOT of embedded stuff (pSOS and VxWorks
OSs) but not any Windows stuff (nor do I intend to, my employer willing),
so I can't really give you any clue to what porting issues you might find
going from Unix/Linux to NT. It really depends upon what your program
does and its software architecture and what facilities from the OS it
requires. If it requires very little from the OS, meaning that is uses
mostly standard C library (again, assuming it is in C) stuff then it
should be easy to port.
Why not re-code it in Java, learn a cool language (if you aren't already
Java fluent) and get the cross-platform stuff for free!
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