Re: compiling gtk apps on windows using gcc

[Tor Lillqvist <tml iki fi>]

Hubert Sokolowski writes:
> Have anyone tried to make some tests with gtk compiled with visual c++
> or other c compiler on windows?

I don't think any such benchmarks have been done specifically for GTK
applications, but they certainly have for other kinds of
applications. Specifically, what comes to my mind is that people into
number-crunching who are much interested in the quality of the various
math functions have discussed such benchmarks on the mingw list now
and then.

(Some of the math functions have different implementations in the
mingw "add-on" C runtime than in the base Microsoft one. I am not
really a number-cruncher myself, I don't know exactly what the issues
related to this are. Something to dSo with how gcc vs. MSVC implements
he precision of doubles internally, or perhaps C99 stuff, I don't
know.)

> I have heard that programs compiled with gcc runs slower on windows
> then the same program compiled with visual c++. Please don't get me
> wrong,

No offense taken. I certainly am aware that MSVC *compiles* several
times faster than gcc, and it wouldn't surprise me if it also produced
faster code in some (or even most) situations. Gcc is after all a
portable compiler, while MSVC presumably has been targetted to the *86
architecture from its beginning. MSVC is also the compiler that
commercial 3rd-party tools like BoundsChecker or Purify support. I
would probaby use MSVC, if only there was seamless support for it in
the auto*/libtool complex. As is, struggling with a separate set of
makefiles that would have to be maintained for each library is just
too much work.

But anyway, I don't think the performance issues of gdk/win32 are such
that just switching compiler would help.

--tml