Cross-compile from Unix to Windows

[groggily]

Allow cross-compiling of Windows binaries from Unix versions of ELENA (Linux, FreeBSD,...).

[arakov]

Sure, I've created an issue for this - #778

[groggily]

I think I should write it more clear. It's about cross compiling of ELENA programs, not ELENA itself. Please don't misunderstand.

[GB18030-2000]

Compiling ELENA programs into Windows binaries on Linux. This is how I understand your idea.

[arakov]

I'm planning to have a separate make rule to create the cross-compile version, something like : cross_elc_amd64.
And there will be a separate script to build API and binary files for Windows. Is this ok? And I'm not sure, if the cress-compile compiler must have the same name. What do you think?

[GB18030-2000]

I like the Clang-style more. One compiler frontend to rule them all. Clang itself is a cross compiler out of the box. Unlike GCC, where you need to have a cross compiler for each target. If you go the GCC-style, you will need to have a new binary named x86_64-windows-elena64-cli!

[groggily]

Bundle everything into elena64-cli is not a good idea. I think there are people don't want to have the cross compiler. They can choose to not build it. Clang is a cross compiler out of the box but it also needs a sysroot for the target platform. Adding the -sysroot switch will complicate things more.

[GB18030-2000]

A cross compiler always needs a sysroot. But you don't need a -sysroot switch here. -target is enough. elena64-cli will automatically select the sysroot for you.

[GB18030-2000]

For people don't want the cross compiler, they can choose to not build it. Exclude a few source files at build time, or defining a macro to tell it not to include the cross compiler functionality, and done.

[GB18030-2000]

I think in the case of ELENA, a sysroot is not needed at all. The runtime is simple enough (it's only a few .bin files). You only need the correct configuration files for the target platforms. A sysroot is a bit overkill here.

[GB18030-2000]

@arakov What is your final design decisions on this?

[arakov]

Yes I know. Unfortunately you have to give the read/write permission to this folder manually.

I will add -m option, maybe it could help

[arakov]

Yes I know. Unfortunately you have to give the read/write permission to this folder manually.

I will add -m option, maybe it could help

No, it doesn't help. So either sudo or give a folder permission manually

[GB18030-2000]

You created the ../../lib60_win directory but run asm64-cli against ../../lib60_64_win.

[GB18030-2000]

BTW, I don't think -m is needed.

[arakov]

Oops. I didn't get it. Fixed

[GB18030-2000]

Another issue I found:

elena-lang/scripts/amd64/local_build_package_amd64.script

Line 111 in 540416e

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/elena/

This is Linux, not FreeBSD. So the path should be /etc/elena/, not /usr/local/etc/elena/.

[arakov]

Thanks. I will fix

[groggily]

@arakov How to use this cross-compiler? I have successfully built it but I don't know how to use!

[arakov]

Sorry, I forgot to post about it.

First make sure that you build API for windows (it is done inside the full_build script)

Then you compile the project using the option "-xtwin32" / "-xtwin64"

 elena64-cli -xtwin64 helloworld.l