Re: What is Cygwin and MinGW [WAS: Request new Ruby release]

[cyg Simple <cygsimple at gmail dot com>]

I'm moving this to the Cygwin-Talk list.

On 5/14/2018 7:48 PM, Steven Penny wrote:
> On Mon, 14 May 2018 10:31:18, cyg Simple wrote:

>> And you a free to do so.  MinGW isn't GCC
> 
> yes it is. when you compile GCC, as i have done:
> 
> http://github.com/svnpenn/glade/blob/master/mingw-w64-x86-64/gcc
> 
> you choose a target. normally for this community that is
> "x86_64-pc-cygwin", but
> in my case it is "x86_64-w64-mingw32". but you dont use some magical
> "MinGW"
> repo, its the same GCC. granted, you do need to also install the target
> "binutils", "headers" and "runtime", but the same source is used to
> build GCC
> itself.
> 

And given this you think Cygwin is also GCC.  WRONG, MinGW and Cygwin
are just the runtime libraries required to build GCC and other packages.
 GCC is a separate entity that has its own process of accepting patches
for using runtime libraries.  Binutils also is a separate entity that
uses even different methods of patching requirements as both Cygwin and
GCC.  Anyone who states that the GCC product is an entity other than GCC
isn't thinking clearly about the various pieces and parts.

Now to make Cygwin or MinGW useful you need the other pieces and parts
but those pieces and parts do not become the entity of Cygwin or MinGW.
Cygwin and MinGW remain a separate entity providing the runtime
libraries to use to build other pieces and parts.

-- 
cyg Simple