I'm a bit confused about the options for using GNU CC on Windows.
If I want to primarily develop console applications (as opposed to GUI apps) what do I need? Where do Cygwin and MinGW figure? For example, if I use the NetBeans IDE C/C++ option, that requires installation of Cygwin.
Are there any options which would allow Console application development without Cygwin?
Both MinGW & Cygwin give you the gcc compiler but if you use MinGW you don't need to install Cygwin because it uses native Windows libraries rather than Cygwin libraries
Cygwin is more than just compilers, it tries to provide a UNIX programming environment by building a lot of UNIX libraries on top of Windows SDK.
You really really should check out Visual C++ Express. It makes developing on windows A LOT easier. I it is free and the Visual C++ is the preferred way to develop windows apps. ANd yes, you can make console applications too.
You can use vc express for concole apps if you wish, or really any compiler for win platform.
You could install CodeBlocks IDE oder DevCPP ide. If you do not require special posix api's then you do not need to install cygwin.
That clarifies things. I'm not particularly interested in a *nix-like environment. I was more interested in getting a GNU C compiler that conforms closely with C99 (which I believe the latest GCC compiler does) and using it as a C learning exercise (hence console rather than GUI apps)
It appears to me that NetBeans IDE/Cygwin option installs an earlier version of the compiler.
So, it appears that MinGW is what I am looking for if I want to use GNU C. Incidentally, the free Pelles C compiler/IDE has a very full C99 implementation.