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 MinGW gcc 3.x Native Installation Under Windows
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             Leor Zolman
           updated 11/24/03

The MinGW32 build of gcc 3.x finally comes in the form of a Win32
self-installer, making it easy to install the gcc 3.x compiler
natively (sans Cygwin) under Windows. However, it is not entirely 
obvious how to use extended containers (hash_set, slist, etc.) after
the installation, so this document tells one way to do it:

1. Download and install the software from:

        http://www.mingw.org/index.shtml

   The file you'll want to download is named MinGW-x.x.x-x.exe, in the
   Current/MinGW section.

   Alternatively, you can download and install the Dev-C++ distribution,
   which contains gcc integrated into it, from

        http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/


2. Add the installation's bin directory to your system PATH

3. To use extended containers (hash_set, hash_multiset, hash_map,
   hash_multimap and slist), you must 

        a) Copy the required header files (I just copy hash_map, hash_set and
           slist) from the include\c++\3.X\ext directory in your gcc hierarchy
           to its parent (the 3.X directory). Note that in the Dev-c++
           distribution, the directory to copy from is include\c++\ext and
           you'll copy into the c++ directory.

           In Dev-C++, instead of copying the files you can just make sure the
           path of the "ext" directory is configured in the compiler options
           "C++ includes" section.

           You may skip this if you prefix these header filenames with "ext/"
           in all of your #include statements, but I find source compatibility
           is easier to maintain when there are no directory prefixes to deal
           with.

        b) Yank in the namespace __gnu_cxx.
           Here's a way to do it that maintains source compatibility with other
           platforms (e.g. Comeau, MSVC 7, gcc 2.95.2):

                #if defined(__GNUC__) && __GNUC__ == 3
                    using namespace __gnu_cxx;
                #endif

4. If you want to use STL error decryption (super-distilled version of the
   information in QUICKSTART.txt from my gcc-specific STL Error Decryptor):
    a) Install ActivePerl (www.activestate.com)
    b) In your gcc installation's bin directory, make a copy of "c++.exe"
       named "c++2.exe".
    c) edit gfilt.bat (from the Decryptor package) to properly locate your
       gSTLFilt.pl file (also from the package)
    d) put gfilt.bat somewhere in your PATH
    e) to compile foobar.cpp, say: gfilt foobar.cpp (it will create a.exe).

   For more flexibility, install the "Proxy c++" as described in the
   Decryptor package.