1Tcl 8.5 for Windows 2 3RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.37.2.1 2009/11/09 23:38:10 stwo Exp $ 4 51. Introduction 6--------------- 7 8This is the directory where you configure and compile the Windows 9version of Tcl. This directory also contains source files for Tcl 10that are specific to Microsoft Windows. 11 12The information in this file is maintained on the web at: 13 14 http://www.tcl.tk/doc/howto/compile.html#win 15 16The above URL includes a lengthy discussion of compiler macros necessary 17when compiling Tcl extensions that will be dynamically loaded. 18 192. Compiling Tcl 20---------------- 21 22In order to compile Tcl for Windows, you need the following: 23 24 Tcl 8.5 Source Distribution (plus any patches) 25 26 and 27 28 Visual C++ 6 or newer 29 30 or 31 32 Msys + Mingw [http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml] 33 34 35In practice, this release is built with Visual C++ 6.0 and the TEA 36Makefile. 37 38If you are building with Visual C++, in the "win" subdirectory of the 39source release, you will find "makefile.vc". This is the makefile for the 40Visual C++ compiler and uses the stock NMAKE tool. Detailed directions for 41using it, are in the comments of "makefile.vc". A quick example would be: 42 43 C:\tcl_source\win\>nmake -f makefile.vc 44 45There is also a Developer Studio workspace and project file, too, if you 46would like to use them. 47 48If you are building with Msys, you can use the configure script that lives 49in the win subdirectory. The Msys based configure/build process works just 50like the UNIX one, so you will want to refer to ../unix/README for 51available configure options. An error will be generated by the configure 52script if you try to compile Tcl with the Cygwin version of gcc instead of 53the Mingw version. Check your PATH if you get this error. 54 55Use the Makefile "install" target to install Tcl. It will install it 56according to the prefix options you provided in the correct directory 57structure. 58 59Note that in order to run tclsh85.exe, you must ensure that tcl85.dll is on 60your path, in the system directory, or in the directory containing 61tclsh85.exe. 62 63Note: Tcl no longer provides support for Win32s. 64 653. Test suite 66------------- 67 68This distribution contains an extensive test suite for Tcl. Some of the 69tests are timing dependent and will fail from time to time. If a test is 70failing consistently, please send us a bug report with as much detail as 71you can manage. Please use the online database at 72 73 http://tcl.sourceforge.net/ 74 75In order to run the test suite, you build the "test" target using the 76appropriate makefile for your compiler. 77