Re: libtool and mkoctfile

[Benjamin Lindner]

John W. Eaton wrote:
> On  4-Nov-2009, Benjamin Lindner wrote:
>
> | If an executable does not call native windows api but instead calls e.g. 
> | a posix intermediate layer which translates these calls to windows api 
> | calls, then this executable is not native.
>
> For MinGW or MSVC with POSIX library functions that ultimately calls
> the Windows API, I don't see the distinction.  It's just a library
> that provides an interface.  It doesn't somehow change the fact that
> the program runs on a Windows system.  If I write my own (not POSIX)
> wrappers around the Windows API that provide a convenient interface to
> me, and then avoid using the Windows API directly, does that somehow
> make my program not a native Windows program?

Yes, this - of course - depends on where you draw the line.
Is using posix threads making an application not native? Or wxwidgets?
I don't know what a good distinction would be. I was thinking of 
cygwin/msys and wanted to specify the distinction in one short sentence, 
and came up with the above.

> In the case of Cygwin, I do see a difference, because Cygwin programs
> assume that the view of the filesystem is POSIX (/cygdrive/c/foo/bar),
> not Windows (C:/foo/bar).  So if these things are exposed users
> notice a difference when they can't open files using the names they
> are familiar with.

So does msys (/c/foo/bar), and I would not call an msys application native.
But in the end they also call native win api. But even an emulation 
software does this. So, yes, where does one draw the line?

benjamn