[texworks] Building on Windows 7

[Casey P. Johnson]

> Hi again,
>
> Am 2010-02-23 15:29, schrieb Casey P. Johnson:
>> Incidentally, on my 64-bit machine I was receiving the following error:
>>
>> c:/bin/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.4.0/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe:
>> c:/bin/Python26/libs/python26.lib(python26.dll): Recognised but
>> unhandled
>> machine type (0x8664) in Import Library Format archive
>>
>> I switched from ActivePython x64 2.6.4 to the installation provided at
>> python.org (also 2.6.4) and it worked immediately. I have no idea what
>> made the difference, but I thought I would put it out there in case
>> anyone
>> else comes across the same problem.
>>
>
> My first guess would be that this is a 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem. The
> name mingw32 would suggest to me that it is strictly 32-bit (BTW: at
> least the lua libs are win32 files, too - there are 64-bit files, but
> not for mingw). If this is true, I'm not really surprised to see it fail
> with 64-bit python files.
>
> I found that there is a MinGW-w64 project, though I'm not sure how
> stable/good it is. If you want to give it a try, I should point out that
> the KDE on Windows files may not work well in that case, so you'd have
> to build everything yourself.
>
> Bottom line: I think for now it's safest to stay on the 32-bit track on
> Windows. Maybe this will change in the future, but then again Tw is not
> so resource-intensive that it would benefit greatly from 64 bit. But I
> have practically no experience with 64 bit systems, yet.
>
> -Stefan
>

I kind of guessed it was a 64-bit issue, which was why I tried installing
the 32-bit Python (though at the time it occurred to me that it could also
be an ActivePython issue, so I figured I could circumvent both
possibilities by switching to the "official" 32-bit Python build. I will
stick with 32-bit for the time being. I agree that there seems little real
motivation at the moment for trying to go 64-bit with TW.

Another thing I have wondered (and a post you made a couple of days ago,
directed at Jonathan, recalled it) is: Would it be much work for me to do
a build similar to his distributions? When I first installed using his
distribution it set up Program Files\TeXworks, with a single large
executable and a few support files. When I build by the instructions in
the Wiki, I get a smaller executable and I have to include a bunch of
extra dlls. Is there a way to build the single large executable this way
and just place it on top of the one from Jonathan's distribution? I
currently have copied all the dlls to that directory and overwritten the
executable, so the setup is functionally equivalent. It's not a big deal;
it just feels like it would just be a bit more elegant if only needed to
replace the executable.

Speaking of the Wiki, it might be worth noting in there that the Lua and
Python plugins (if they are to be included) have to be compiled BEFORE
compiling TW (at least on Windows).

Thanks again.

Casey