Why is it compiling GMP so hard?

[Sisyphus]

Brian Gladman wrote:
> Sisyphus wrote:
> 

>>
>>Or - is there a performance hit involved here ?
>>In other words, what is gained by building GMP the way Brian does it ?
> 
> 
> This rather depends on what you mean by performance - if you mean speed
> of GMP code when running, in most cases there is no performance hit
> since the core functionality of GMP is written in assembler.
> 
> In my view it is of little real use trying to promote the Windows or
> Gnu/Linux environments by denigrating the other since this is very easy
> to do in _either_ direction.  There is also a very real danger that such
> efforts will be seen as denigrating those who choose to use the
> denigrated products rather than the products themselves.
> 
> There are several advantages in using VC++ to build GMP for those who
> already use this development environment for their work.  And this is
> the key since _for these users_ there is no reason to compare the
> installation cost of VC++ and MSYS/Cygwin/Mingw since the former tool
> chain is _already_ installed (obviously this is also true the other way
> round). So its essentially a matter of choice in terms of development
> environment.
> 
> Although it might be possible (I admit that I have not tried that hard),
> I have not yet found a way of porting a Cygwin/Mingw produced version of
> GMP into VC++ in a way that gives full access to the debugging and
> browsing capabilities that the VC++ IDE offers.  These facilities make
> it easier _in this environment_ to integrate GMP into GMP based
> applications (e.g NTL) when GMP itself is built with these same tools.
> 
> I actually build GMP on Windows either way depending on what I want to
> do with the finished product.  Both approaches have advantages and
> disadvantages, although you would hardly think so listening to those who
> don't seem to have the experience needed to make such assessments (since
> they only ever build GMP in one way).
> 

Yes - and I would be one who doesn't have the the experience needed 
(since I only ever build with gcc) - which is why I asked the question 
(prompted by Pauls' mention of "high performance"). Thank you for a very 
good answer.

It was certainly not my intention to bait or challenge you - and there 
would be absolutely no basis for denigrating your work :-)

It's just that when someone complains/suggests/hints that it's difficult 
to build GMP on Win32 I'm liable to react by trotting out the same old 
spiel about MSYS and MinGW - mainly because that's the only way I know 
how, but also because it's dead easy.

Cheers,
Rob