[PD] Please explain Windows compiling once and for all!

[Martin Peach]

Mark Polesky wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I'm trying not to get frustrated, seeing how posts like this one (on 
> compiling externals for Windows) are either ignored or answered way 
> too cryptically:
>
> http://lists.puredata.info/pipermail/pd-list/2007-06/051182.html
I guess they get answered over and over again and then forgotten over 
and over again.
>
> I posted a similar question to the "PURE DATA forum~" a few days ago, 
> and so far it too has gone unanswered:
>
> http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-1029-problem-compiling-external-windows
>
> Is compiling an external for Windows so mysterious that no one knows 
> how to do it? The responses that I've seen so far usually amount to 
> "well this is how it's done on linux, try changing this to that and 
> maybe it'll work". The famous external tutorial ( 
> http://iem.at/pd/externals-HOWTO/ ) looks very interesting, but it 
> does me no good without knowing how to get from .c to .pd ...
There really should be a section in that HOWTO for compiling on the 
different OSs.
>
> The request is simple: List the steps required (without skipping any!) 
> to take the C source file " helloworld.c" and make it into a usable 
> object in pd.
If you're on some kind of MSVC, you set up a project to build a dll, in 
"preprocessor defines" define MSW, in "additional include paths" include 
the path to pd/src/m_pd.h, link with pd.lib from pd/bin, and in the 
linker command line add "/export:yourexternal_setup" to export the setup 
function. All the other functions in your code can be static and don't 
need to be exported. After it builds you take the dll from the release 
folder and put it in your pd/extra folder.
That should be everything you need, but if it's too cryptic I can go 
into more detail...

Martin