Can g++ / minGW play nice with the Windows SDK? Is Visual Studio the only option?

Question

Can g++ and minGW on Windows XP use the Windows SDK?

Specifically, why does g++ fail to compile:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>

int main(void) {
 printf("!!!Hello World!!!");
 return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

I have tried compiling by by running:

g++ -c -Wall  Test.cpp -IC:/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Platform\ SDK/Include/

I get a litany of compile errors beginning with

winnt.h:666:2: #error Must define a target architecture.

I have installed the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK

Background

I am working on a large real-time image processing software project that up until now has used g++, minGW and gnu make files (written by hand). For a new feature, I need to interface with a frame grabber that has an SDK which was designed for Visual Studio. The framegrabber SDK depends on header files from the Windows SDK.

Do I need to learn Visual Studio or is there another way?

Answer 1

I use MinGW to compile Windows programs every day, with zero problems. There must be something wrong with your installation - try the version at Twilight Dragon Media.

Edit: Just re-read your post - you do not need to specify the include directory as you are doing, and probably should not do so. Also, you may (or may not) need the slightly mysterious -mwindows flag. I just compiled your program using MinGW (TDM build) g++ 4.4.1, with the command line:

g++ main.cpp

with absolutely no problems.

More Info: Just so you know what the -mwindows flag does, the GCC docs say:

This option is available for Cygwin and MinGW targets.It specifes that a GUI application is to be generated by instructing the linker to set the PE header subsystem type appropriately.

Personally, I've never found it necessary, but then my Windows apps are all command line tools or servers.

Answer 2

try adding these defines before you include those windows headers

#define WINVER 0x0501
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0501

EDIT: my gcc compiles your script without problems (and without these defines) aswell. I am using mingw's gcc 4.40 (alpha ?!)

Answer 3

What should I do, when I want exactly those header files from Windows SDK and not any others? There is a shitload of compiler errors when I try this. I just don't like bloated programs with unnecessary code. Did you ever compare two programs - one compiled with MinGW compiler/headers - and one with MS Visual Studio Compiler/Windows SDK headers? A small "Hello world!" program - the difference is about 300kb! I just can't overlook this.

I tried with both - MinGW and CygWin.

Answer 4

Andy have you meanwile got a solution for this issue? I actually run in the same problems using MinGW/MSYS in handshake with the Windows SDK.

I've to develop a win32 plattform migration of a stacktrace walk mechanism which allready works fine on Linux OS.

First i've tried to implement a stackwalk using the win32 CaptureStackBackTrace API mechanism. But this method is not integrated in the actually winbase header of mingw... So i decided tried use the dbgheader mechanism ... But i fail again, because the dbghelp header and libraries are not part of the MinGW installation...

Now i try to use MinGW/MSYS in handshake with the actually Widnows SDK...

I would be grateful for any information. Best regards, Chris