1 

     2 Using SDL under Windows with the OpenWatcom compiler

     3 ====================================================

     4 

     5 Prerequisites

     6 -------------

     7 

     8 I have done the port under Windows XP Home with SP2 installed. Windows

     9 2000 should also be working. I'm not so sure about ancient Windows NT,

    10 since only DirectX 3 is available there. Building should be possible,

    11 but running the compiled applications will probalbly fail with

    12 SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx. The windib driver should work, though.

    13 

    14 To compile and use the SDL with Open Watcom you will need the following:

    15 - Open Watcom compiler. I used version 1.5. The environment variables

    16   PATH, WATCOM and INCLUDE need to be set appropriately - please consult

    17   the OpenWatcom documentation and instructions given during the

    18   installation of the compiler.

    19   My setup looks like this in owvars.bat:

    20     set WATCOM=C:\watcom

    21     set INCLUDE=%WATCOM%\h;%WATCOM%\h\nt

    22     set PATH=%PATH%;%WATCOM%\binnt;%WATCOM%\binw

    23 - A fairly recent DirectX SDK. The original unmodified DX8 SDK works, as

    24   well as the minimal DirectX 7 SDK from the Allegro download site

    25   (<http://alleg.sourceforge.net/files/dx70_min.zip>).

    26 - The SDL sources from Subversion

    27 - The file Watcom-Win32.zip (now available in Subversion)

    28 

    29 

    30 Building the Library

    31 --------------------

    32 

    33 1) In the SDL base directory extract the archive Watcom-Win32.zip. This

    34    creates a subdirectory named 'watcom'.

    35 2) The makefile expects the environment variable DXDIR to be set to the

    36    base directory of a DirectX SDK. I have tried a stock DX8 SDK from

    37    Microsoft as well as the minimal DirectX 7 SDK from the Allegro

    38    download site.

    39    You can also edit the makefile directly and hard code your path to

    40    the SDK on your system.

    41    I have this in my setup:

    42      set DXDIR=D:\devel\DX8_SDK

    43 3) Enter the watcom directory and run

    44      wmake sdl

    45 4) All tests from the test directory are working and can be built by

    46    running

    47      wmake tests

    48 

    49 Notes:

    50 

    51  The makefile offers some options to tweak the way the library is built.

    52  You have at your disposal the option to build a static (default)

    53  library, or a DLL (with tgt=dll). You can also choose whether to build

    54  a Release (default) or a Debug version (with build=debug) of the tests

    55  and library. Please consult the usage comment at the top of the

    56  makefile for usage instructions.

    57 

    58  If you specify a test target (i.e. 'wmake tests' for all tests, or

    59  selected targets like 'wmake testgl testvidinfo testoverlay2'), the

    60  tests are always freshly compiled and linked. This is done to

    61  minimise hassle when switching between library versions (static vs.

    62  DLL), because they require subtly different options.

    63  Also, the test executables are put directly into the test directory,

    64  so they can find their data files. The clean target of the makefile

    65  removes the test executables and the SDL.dll file from the test

    66  directory.

    67 

    68  To use the library in your own projects with Open Watcom, you can use

    69  the way the tests are built as base of your own build environment.

    70 

    71  The library can also be built with the stack calling convention of the

    72  compiler (-6s instead of -6r).

    73 

    74 

    75 Test applications

    76 -----------------

    77 

    78 I've tried to make all tests work. The following table gives an overview

    79 of the current status.

    80 

    81  Testname        Status

    82 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    83 checkkeys       +

    84 graywin         +

    85 loopwave        +

    86 testalpha       +

    87 testbitmap      +

    88 testdyngl       +

    89 testerror       +

    90 testfile        +

    91 testgamma       +

    92 testgl          +

    93 testhread       +

    94 testiconv       - (all failed)

    95 testkeys        +

    96 testlock        +

    97 testoverlay     + (needs 'set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx')

    98 testoverlay2    + (needs 'set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx')

    99 testpalette     +

   100 testplatform    +

   101 testsem         +

   102 testsprite      +

   103 testtimer       +

   104 testver         +

   105 testvidinfo     +

   106 testwin         ? (fading doesn't seem right)

   107 testwm          +

   108 torturethread   +

   109 testcdrom       +

   110 testjoystick    not tested

   111 threadwin       +

   112 testcursor      +

   113 

   114 

   115 TODO

   116 ----

   117 

   118 There is room for further improvement:

   119 - Test joystick functionality.

   120 - Investigate fading issue in 'testwin' test.

   121 - Fix the UTF-8 support.

   122 - Adapt the makefile/object file list to support more target systems

   123 - Use "#pragma aux" syntax for the CPU info functions.

   124 

   125 

   126 Questions and Comments

   127 ----------------------

   128 

   129 Please direct any questions or comments to me:  <mailto:macpete@gmx.de>

   130 

   131    Happy Coding!

   132 

   133    Marc Peter