Can you use a later build of MinGW64 compiler for Blitzmax NG?

[SC-Dan37]

I've been playing with this for a couple of days and can get BlitzNG and mods to compile using the latest MinGW64 compiler (7.10) but the executable will not run with a 0xc000007b error. Has anyone tried to compile with something other than TDM GCC 5.1? I ask because that build is getting old now.

Thanks

[TomToad]

Did you try rebuilding all modules after updating MinGW?

[GW]

executable will not run with a 0xc000007b error.

I get this error a lot too. 
NG has a problem with attaching to 32bit dll's at runtime for 64bit applications.  I don't know how to solve it myself, but it prevents me from NG as much as i'd like.
Try opening your compiled program in dependency walker (http://www.dependencywalker.com/) and you will might see references to 32bit dlls. 

[SC-Dan37]

TomToad: Yes I did recompile all mods.

GW: Thanks. I did look at the program with Dependency Walker (had searched the error) and could not see a 32 bit library referenced, but I'll double check it.

[SC-Dan37]

You were right, GW, Dependency Walker shows 2 32bit libraries linked: LIBGCC_S_SJLJ-1.DLL and LIBSTDC++-6.DLL. Will do some searching on the net...

[SC-Dan37]

I installed the MinGW 7.1.0 i686 libraries and recompiled all mods and a test program without issue. Trying to compile a program using MinGW 7.1.0 x64 libraries will compile the mods in 32bit but will come up with lots of linker errors when trying to compile a program, so yeah, there is some incompatibilities with the 64 bit version of MinGW. Do you know if Brucey is on this forum or have you submitted a bug ticket in GitHub for this?

[Rooster]

Yeah Brucey's on here. The easiest way to get his attention here would probably be a PM.

[SC-Dan37]

Had some more ideas and tried it again and have successfully compiled programs in 32 bit and 64 bit in Windows 10. Here is what I did.

• Installed MinGW32 7.1.0 i686, then installed MinGW64 7.1.0 x64 in a different directory. For example: 32 bit MinGW in D:\mingw\i686\mingw32, and 64 bit MinGW in D:\mingw\x64\mingw64. (When installing using the Mingw-installer, I pointed to D:\mingw\i686. The installer adds mingw32. Same thing on the 64bit build.)
• Set the MINGW environment variable to the MinGW32 folder. I put mine in my user variable section, not the system.
• Added the MinGW32 folder/bin to the windows path system environment variable. For example the 32bit mingw install: D:\mingw\i686\mingw32\bin
• Installed Blitzmax from GitHub following the instructions
• Using Blitzmax compiled NG bcc and bmk from GitHub and put them in the correct directory (from Brucey's instructions).
• Put brl, pub, and maxgui modules in correct directory and compiled using NG's bmk. For example: opening a command prompt and navigating to my Blitzmax NG bin directory I would type: bmk -a -g x86 -h brl to compile the brl modules for 32bit. (-h is optional for multithreaded builds). Do the same for pub and maxgui mods.
• Compiled maxIde cleanly using bmk -a -g x86 -h -t gui d:\path\to\maxide.bmx.

Now for 64 bit:

• Change the MINGW environment variable to the directory where the MinGW64 directory is. For example, mine would be d:\mingw\x64\mingw64
• Change the path environment variable to the MinGW64/bin directory. For example: D:\mingw\x64\mingw64\bin
• Using bmk recompile brl, pub, and maxgui mods: in Blitzmax NG bin directory on command prompt: bmk -a -g x64 -h brl (again -h is optional for multithreading). Do the same for pub and maxgui
• Using bmk comile maxIde using bmk makeapp -a -g x64 -h -t gui d:\path\to\maxide.bmx. Again -h is optional.

Hope this helps. Will experiment a bit further to see if I can cross compile using the mingw64 to 32bit, but at least with this build each one is achievable. Interested if others have the same results...

[Henri]

Hi,

nice and informatic guide. I remember that NG's bmk searches 32-bit libraries in <bmx-folder>\MinGW32\ by default, so if you create <bmx-folder>\MinGW64 folder for 64-bit libraries, your program would link fine ?

-Henri

[SC-Dan37]

I will try it and let you know. Thanks!

[TomToad]

I remember that Brucey had created two default folders for MinGW,  one for 64 bit builds and one for 32 bit builds.  I think it was simply <ng-install>/MinGW32 and <ng-install>/MinGW64, but I am not sure.  Tried searching for the thread on wasted.nz, but I can't find it.  Maybe looking through the bmk source will help locate the proper directories.

Edit: Found it, from the bmk,bmx
' 3.17 25/02/2017 - Support for single-target MinGW32 distros (eg. MinGW-w64), with paths MinGW32x86 and MinGW32x64.

[xlsior]

Interesting, will give that a shot.

Question: The MinGW online downloader/installer gives several choices:

threads: posix/Win32  --> Which one?
Exception: Dwarf / sjlj / Seh -> I'm assuming we need sjlj there?

[markcwm]

If you follow what TDM GCC uses you should be okay
http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/quirks

So for threads Posix and exceptions SJLJ in 32-bit and SEH in 64-bit

[xlsior]

Thanks!

[SC-Dan37]

Thanks, Tom! Naming the folders MinGW32x86 and MinGW32x64 works just fine. BMK will compile, for example, maxide cleaningly.

However, the executable will not run without copying 3 dll files from the mingw bin directory (at least for 64 bit): libgcc_s_seh-1.dll, libstdc++-6.dll, and libwinpthread-1.dll. Anyone else having this issue?

edit: but I can compile a program in MaxIDE and run it without issue. Now I'm confused...