Most precompiled Windows binaries are made with the MSYS+gcc toolchain. It uses MSVCRT runtime, which is incompatible with Visual C++ 2005/2008.
So, how to go about and compile Cairo 1.6.4 (or later) for Visual C++ only. Including dependencies (png,zlib,pixman).
Did you check here: http://cairographics.org/visualstudio/ ? What do you mean 'It uses MSCVRT runtime, which is incompatible with Visual C++ 2005/2008' ? What are the exact problems you're having?
MSYS+gcc toolchain uses the old MSVCRT runtime library (now built into Windows) and Visual C++ 2005/2008 bring their own. It is a known fact that code should not depend on multiple runtimes. Passing things s.a. file handles, memory pointers etc. will be affected, and will cause apparently random crashes in such scenario.
I have not been bitted by this. Then again, I don't really target Windows any more, either. But I've been told enough to not even try the solution.
What could have worked, is linking all the dependencies statically into the lib (say, Cairomm). Static libs don't have a runtime bound to them, do they? But I did not try this. I actually got the VC++ building of all ingredients to work, but it took days.
I hadn't found the URL you give. Strange in itself; I looked 'everywhere'. Then again, it is for Visual Studio 2003.NET, so two generations behind already.
I have done this, but I don't have any ready-written instructions. My builds are also rather minimal as I haven't needed support for eg. PNG and SVG files, I just used it to render generated vector graphics to memory buffers.
But what I did was read through the config.h and other files for the UNIX/GNU build system and write my own suited for MSVC, and then create a project with the appropriate source files. It probably takes a few hours at best to do this, but when you're done it just works ;)
Edit: Do see this page, it has an MSVC 2003 (7.1) project for building cairo: http://slinavlee.googlepages.com/
Here are instructions for building Cairo/Cairomm with Visual C++.
Required:
To use VC++ command line tools, a batch file 'vcvars32.bat' needs to be run.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vcvars32.bat
Download (and extract) zlib123.zip from http://www.zlib.net/
cd zlib123
nmake /f win32/Makefile.msc
dir
# zlib.lib is the static library
#
# zdll.lib is the import library for zlib1.dll
# zlib1.dll is the shared library
Download (and extract) lpng1231.zip from http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html
The VC++ 9.0 compiler gives loads of "this might be unsafe" warnings. Ignore them; this is MS security panic (the code is good).
cd lpng1231\lpng1231 # for some reason this is two stories deep
nmake /f ../../lpng1231.nmake ZLIB_PATH=../zlib123
dir
# libpng.lib is the static library
#
# dll is not being created
Pixman is part of Cairo, but a separate download.
Download (and extract) pixman-0.12.0.tar.gz from http://www.cairographics.org/releases/
Use MSYS to untar via 'tar -xvzf pixman*.tar.gz'
Both Pixman and Cairo have Makefiles for Visual C++ command line compiler (cl), but they use Gnu makefile and Unix-like tools (sed etc.). This means we have to run the make from within MSYS.
Open a command prompt with VC++ command line tools enabled (try 'cl /?'). Turn that command prompt into an MSYS prompt by 'C:\MSYS\1.0\MSYS.BAT'.
DO NOT use the MSYS icon, because then your prompt will now know of VC++. You cannot run .bat files from MSYS.
Try that VC++ tools work from here: 'cl -?'
Try that Gnu make also works: 'make -v'.
Cool.
cd (use /d/... instead of D:)
cd pixman-0.12.0/pixman
make -f Makefile.win32
This defaults to MMX and SSE2 optimizations, which require a newish x86 processor (Pentium 4 or Pentium M or above: http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE2 )
There's quite some warnings but it seems to succeed.
ls release
# pixman-1.lib (static lib required by Cairo)
Stay in the VC++ spiced MSYS prompt for also Cairo to compile.
Download (and extract) cairo-1.6.4.tar.gz from http://www.cairographics.org/releases/
cd
cd cairo-1.6.4
The Makefile.win32 here is almost good, but has the Pixman path hardwired.
Use the modified 'Makefile-cairo.win32':
make -f ../Makefile-cairo.win32 CFG=release \
PIXMAN_PATH=../../pixman-0.12.0 \
LIBPNG_PATH=../../lpng1231 \
ZLIB_PATH=../../zlib123
(Write everything on one line, ignoring the backslashes)
It says "no rule to make 'src/cairo-features.h'. Use the manually prepared one (in Cairo > 1.6.4 there may be a 'src/cairo-features-win32.h' that you can simply rename):
cp ../cairo-features.h src/
Retry the make command (arrow up remembers it).
ls src/release
#
# cairo-static.lib
Download (and extract) cairomm-1.6.4.tar.gz from http://www.cairographics.org/releases/
There is a Visual C++ 2005 Project that we can use (via open & upgrade) for 2008.
cairomm-1.6.4\MSCV_Net2005\cairomm\cairomm.vcproj
Changes that need to be done:
Change active configuration to "Release"
Cairomm-1.0 properties (with right click menu)
C++/General/Additional Include Directories:
..\..\..\cairo-1.6.4\src (append to existing)
Linker/General/Additional library directories:
..\..\..\cairo-1.6.4\src\release
..\..\..\lpng1231\lpng1231
..\..\..\zlib123
Linker/Input/Additional dependencies:
cairo-static.lib libpng.lib zlib.lib msimg32.lib
C++/Code generation/Floating point model
Fast
Right click on 'cairomm-1.0' and 'build'. There are some warnings.
dir cairomm-1.6.4\MSVC_Net2005\cairomm\Release
#
# cairomm-1.0.lib
# cairomm-1.0.dll
# cairomm.def
The instructions don't seem to work with current version of imlib, I wonder if it's worth reasking this question ?