1
2Using SDL under Windows with the OpenWatcom compiler
3====================================================
4
5Prerequisites
6-------------
7
8I have done the port under Windows XP Home with SP2 installed. Windows
92000 should also be working. I'm not so sure about ancient Windows NT,
10since only DirectX 3 is available there. Building should be possible,
11but running the compiled applications will probalbly fail with
12SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx. The windib driver should work, though.
13
14To 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
30Building the Library
31--------------------
32
331) In the SDL base directory extract the archive Watcom-Win32.zip. This
34   creates a subdirectory named 'watcom'.
352) 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
433) Enter the watcom directory and run
44     wmake sdl
454) All tests from the test directory are working and can be built by
46   running
47     wmake tests
48
49Notes:
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
75Test applications
76-----------------
77
78I've tried to make all tests work. The following table gives an overview
79of the current status.
80
81 Testname        Status
82~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
83checkkeys       +
84graywin         +
85loopwave        +
86testalpha       +
87testbitmap      +
88testdyngl       +
89testerror       +
90testfile        +
91testgamma       +
92testgl          +
93testhread       +
94testiconv       - (all failed)
95testkeys        +
96testlock        +
97testoverlay     + (needs 'set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx')
98testoverlay2    + (needs 'set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx')
99testpalette     +
100testplatform    +
101testsem         +
102testsprite      +
103testtimer       +
104testver         +
105testvidinfo     +
106testwin         ? (fading doesn't seem right)
107testwm          +
108torturethread   +
109testcdrom       +
110testjoystick    not tested
111threadwin       +
112testcursor      +
113
114
115TODO
116----
117
118There 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
126Questions and Comments
127----------------------
128
129Please direct any questions or comments to me:  <mailto:macpete@gmx.de>
130
131   Happy Coding!
132
133   Marc Peter
134