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Building Gimp 2.0 on Windows XP?

Posted by Cliff on from the why-not? dept.

Anonymouse asks: "Has anyone out there just had the urge to build Gimp 2.0 on Windows instead of using an installer made by a third party, hosted on a free web hosting service? It's probably fine but it makes me nervous, so I figure I should try building it on Windows instead...besides, it could be educational! Does anyone have any instructions/suggestions for building the source on Windows XP using MinGW and MinSYS? Keep in mind I have no experience with *nix, and my meek programing skillz only apply to Perl. Thanks!"

4 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Not too sketchy. by SenatorTreason · · Score: 5, Informative
    "...an installer made by a third party, hosted on a free web hosting service?"

    I found this site linked from the main Gimp site. It doesn't look too sketchy to me. Why don't you use that?
    If you really want to compile from scratch, do it on Linux first with native Linux programs. When you get the hang of that, move to Windows. I'm all for sink-or-swim type trials, but, in this case, I think you'll sink. Very quickly.
  2. Build is a discipline all to itself by ObviousGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Many software shops have dedicated build teams that do nothing more than make sure that the software is rebuilt from source every day. This entails tweaking build scripts, makefiles, and making sure that the proper libraries are available for the compiler and linker.

    This is not an easy task, though once set up properly it becomes fairly self-managing.

    Since you are coming from Perl where there is nothing to compile, it would probably be best to start by installing Cygwin and gcc and just try compiling a few simple programs first. READ the makefiles. Understanding the makefiles will make understanding the build process much easier.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  3. Building GIMP by Tukon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The GIMP wiki has a full page on building GIMP using MinGW here.

    Not something that is worthy of an Ask Slashdot in my opinion, but we're here to help I guess. Also, check out the #gimp channel on irc.gimp.org for some help.

    -Tukon
    Stating the obvious.

  4. My experiences with GIMP 2.0 on Windows by Xenkar · · Score: 5, Informative
    It's pretty nice but unfortunately the GTK version it requires breaks tray menus in Gaim and breaks Sodipodi's PNG export function and produces many errors.

    I downgraded to GTK 2.2.4.2 revision C and went back to GIMP 1.25. I'll give GIMP 2.0 another try when GTK+ 2.4.1 is released.