Windows Novice
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Beginners Area/Windows Novice
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| Hi all. I have a few very basic BlitzMax on Windows questions. First, who makes MinGW? What is it for? Most important -- where do I put MinGW? Thanks Using WinXP SP3 on Dell at the moment. |
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| MinGW is made by a collection of programmers... Open source... MinGW Web Site MinGW is basically a free c/c++ etc compiler so you can rebuild .mods you may want to use in blitzmax. SourceForge Download Link Download the installer and it will do the rest. You will then be able to build the modules for BlitzMax... as well as program .c and .cc etc... I don't believe you need to set the environment variables in win xp if you use the installer... but i could be mistaken. :D |
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| Download the installer and it will do the rest Not exactly - you need to know what components to install as you do not need all of it. I don't believe you need to set the environment variables in win xp if you use the installer... but i could be mistaken. :D You're mistaken. And the process is different for XP than it is to Vista/Windows 7 (extra steps are needed).Also I found that it would not actually compile C++ code without further fannying about. There's a step by step guide to doing it all on here somewhere. [edit] here. |
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| http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=72892 |
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| John... you probably don't need to bother with MingGW if you're just starting out. As Shortwind said, it's only if you want to recompile the modules or write an C or C++ components into your code. If you're not sure what this all means, then you don't need MingW (yet!) |
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| Thanks Shortwind and all. I'm not a completely novice programmer, just new to Windows. I've created a ready to go (by my loose standards) BlitzMax Mac game that I'm trying to port over to Windows. The Windows (XP) version came up quickly and runs identically once I go to full-screen graphics. Brucey earlier gave some advice on where to store Preference files. Looks OK -- at least on XP. I tried using BlitzMaxCompanion. Through no fault of the author, things didn't go as hoped. Pilot error. Here are some challenges left. The compiled game has no Icon -- not even BlitzMax. Couldn't get ResHack to work to add an Icon. Using MaxGUI, the Buttons on the Mac version look great. On the Windows version, the buttons don't look nearly as good. Here I thought maybe MinGW might be involved. The Mac and Win screen width/height/depth choices are organized differently. Needs some work sorting to guide users. On the Mac I forced 32 bit depth. On Windows, should there be a choice of 16 bit or 32 bit? Will explore suggested sites. Thanks all. |
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| therevills -- I couldn't open your Link (above). Thanks |
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| @John G change blitzbasic to blitzmax on the link. |
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| Thanks Jesse. I remember reading that topic=72892 thread once before. The consensus seems to be that I don't even need MinGW right now. Thought I was missing an important component. I guess my second post above sounded like grumbling. Actually quite excited that my first Windows compile ran so quickly and easily. Mac and PC versions almost identical performance. My PC gamer son was amazed by his Mac old-man. (Not my game, per se) One question at a time. The compiled Mac game has a BlitzMax Icon. Should the compiled PCgame.exe have a BlitzMax Icon? Mine looks like a white-ish window. Thanks again |
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| The consensus seems to be that I don't even need MinGW right now. Thought I was missing an important component. It *is* important if you are using any 3rd party modules, since any BlitzMax update may require you to re-compile those modules before they'll work. If all you use is stock Blitzmax, then you can easily do without MinGW |
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| Hi xlsior. This is where I was confused. I'm not using any 3rd party modules on the Mac builds, so I wasn't sure if I needed MinGW for the PC build. I've looked at a few 3rd party modules but I don't speak OOP, and prefer not using any dialect of C -- if I can help it. Too mature. A good Basic can do anything C can do -- just not as trendy. (opinion) I thought MinGW might be required for things like app icons or the Windows equivalent of the "Mac Toolbox" which Blitz relies on. Thanks. |
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| Still lost in Windows. Does downloading a game on Windows usually require an installer program? If so, can you recommend one? Thanks. |
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| Most games come with an installer. If you want to use one to wrap your own game, you may want to take a look at either Inno Setup ( http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php ) or the Nullsoft installer: ( http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page ) |
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| What game are you having trouble with? Games usually come as a zip archive you extract and run the exe, or an installer that will usually add a short cut to the start menu. |
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| Thanks. This would be for my own game if/when finished. I would have a single .ZIP file posted on my own website. The typical user would download it with favorite browser into their Downloads folder. On XP at least, Downloads seem located under My Documents. Should the user them: (1) Unzip in Downloads and move game someplace? (2) Move zip file someplace and then unzip? (3) Open game installer within Downloads folder? I'm used to Mac where you can download game file somewhere, unzip, and put it somewhere else. Then perhaps change location later. Thanks |
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| For a regular Blitzmax creation they can do either 1 or 2. It's just that on Windows it's considered "unprofessional" as people who aren't computer savvy might not know how to unzip a folder or find it after they've downloaded it or something, which is why installers exist that put the game somewhere and then add a start menu shortcut. The problem with moving the folder after an installation is because the shortcuts aren't updated. For a commercially released game, you definately need an installer. For a free game, you can stick with a zip file. |
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| Novice again. I finally got MinGW (5.1.6) installed in c:\MinGW and linked to a fresh BlitzMax (139) and MaxGUI (139e) installed in c:\BlitzMax. Progress! Next step is to attach MyIcon.png to MyGameWin.exe using ResHack. No clue here. Any simple instructions much appreciated. Thanks. Sent from my Dell WinXP Laptop |
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| Use Blide :) |
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| how about 1.5 Selfextracting zips with a default path set correspondingly. |
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| how about 1.5 Hi Dremora -- which 1.5 are you referring? Thanks. |
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| Hi Czar Flavius. I finally took a look at BLIde. Looks like a very professional tool, but the setup and options are all way, way over my head. Grumble, grumble. Thanks. |
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