Developer Setup for Windows with MinGW32

Configuring your Windows machine to compile XCSoar using the MinGW compiler.

Note: This creates just the PC/Windows version of XCSoar, not the versions that run on a PDA, PNA or Altair.

1) Download mSysGit

The development version of mSysGit includes the MinGW compiler and the mSys commandline tools, so you don't have to download them seperatly.

Git is the source code version control system used by the XCSoar team to maintain the source code for the project.
You will need the current development version of mSysGit (e.g. msysGit-fullinstall-1.6.4-preview20090729.exe) located at:

• http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list

Attention: Make sure you have the development version, otherwise we can't compile XCSoar afterwards!

2) Install mSysGit

Install mSysGit by running the executable you just downloaded. Install it to "C:\", not "C:\msysgit" as suggested by the setup. The mSysGit folder will be created anyway. This might take a while since the Git executables will be compiled on your machine first.

3) Download and unpack the XCSoar SVG tools (based on ImageMagick? and librsvg)

Download the following ZIP file and extract it to "C:\msysgit\bin".

• http://xcsoar.ath.cx/downloads/xcsoar-svg.zip

4) Download the XCSoar source code from our repository

Open the mSysGit console (should be located at "C:\msysgit\msys.bat"). Type the following commands to enter your C: drive and prepare git to for the download:

 git config --global core.autocrlf false

 cd /c

Now enter the following command to download the source code into a new "xcsoar" folder:

 git clone git://xcsoar.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/xcsoar/xcsoar  

This will take a few minutes, and it will create a folder called "xcsoar" that contains the XCSoar project source code.

5) Compiling XCSoar

If you closed the mSysGit console, open it again. Now type the following commands to compile XCSoar via MinGW:

 cd /c/xcsoar/

 make WINHOST=y TARGET=PC

The WINHOST parameter is needed when compiling on Windows machines since the compiler executables have different names here.

Next steps

• You should now be able to start developing with MinGW and an editor of your choice (e.g. notepad)
• Visit Advanced/Development/Setup/WindowsEclipse to learn how to install and use Eclipse for developing XCSoar
• Return to Advanced/Development for more ideas what to do next