Re: lynx-dev cygwin patch

[Doug Kaufman]

On Sun, 30 Apr 2000, Philip Webb wrote:

> 000430 Doug Kaufman wrote:
> FMI (and probably several others') what is Cygwin?
> could you remind us what DJGPP is (i once knew)?

These are both development systems to allow unix programs to be ported
to DOS (for DJGPP) and Windows (for cygwin). There are multiple ported
tools (including the BASH shell), to allow the appearance of using
unix when the actual operating system is DOS or Windows. The cygwin
port of lynx uses the regular configure script to create a makefile.
Theoretically the DJGPP port could, but it would require tweaking of
the configure script. Each uses workarounds for the weaknesses of the
underlying OS. The main deficiency in DJGPP is lack of fork(), since
DOS doesn't do multitasking. It uses temporary files to simulate
pipes. Various programs have been modified to take into account the
drivenames (e.g., c:, etc.) used by DOS. Both are free systems,
although the free version of cygwin requires the compiled program to
be distributed under GPL. A commercial license can be purchased. The
MingW system that Victor Schneider posts about uses the cygwin system,
but avoids the POSIX compatible library, using instead the native
Windows functions. This avoids the GPL restriction and the need for
separate distribution of the cygwin1.dll file.

DJGPP was created by DJ Delorie, and maintained by an international
group of volunteers. DJ is employed by Red Hat (who bought Cygnus),
and is one of the main software developers for the cygwin system.
                             Doug
__ 
Doug Kaufman
Internet: address@hidden