Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Windows Build environment -- Cygwin or MinGW?

[Don Ward]

Kevin Dixon wrote:

> I'd like to get started building GNURadio for Windows, using the USRP
> 1, with the goal of writing some custom blocks. Do people prefer
> Cygwin or MinGW style installations? Off the cuff, Cygwin looks more
> straightforward. Any opinions?

I use GNU Radio (with USRP1) on both, but prefer MinGW as my "production" 
environment.

Cygwin has more of the prerequisites available as easy-to-install packages, 
but they change fairly often, and anytime you update to the latest packages 
there is a risk that your next GNU Radio installation may not work.  The 
last time I tried it, they were in the process of moving from gcc 3.x to 
4.x, but their gcc 4.x required some hacks to GNU Radio.  At some point, I 
expect that 3.x versions of the dependencies will no longer be available and 
4.x will be the only option.

MinGW requires a little more work to get all the pieces together, but once 
you have a working system it is more likely to continue to work forever.

Neither one is in any way comparable to your typical download-and-run 
Windows install.  It really helps if you have (or are willing to acquire) 
some Unix/Linux experience, or are at least comfortable with using a Windows 
cmd shell.  I assume you have seen the instructions at 
http://gnuradio.org/redmine/wiki/gnuradio/WindowsInstall.

I have attached a rudimentary Python script to install MinGW, MSYS, and GNU 
Radio.  You need to read the notes at the beginning of the script and edit 
it to suit your needs, and you may need to updated the versions and/or 
locations of the dependencies.  But once you get it right, it could save you 
a lot of work.

Good luck with it,

-- Don W.

gr_mingw_install.py
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