GIMP Version: 2.8.4
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: win 7 32 bits
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level

List any relevant plug-ins or scripts:
all .exe plugins written in c

---

Hi Samj
you are always providing us nice compiled versions of plug-ins fo windows, so first of all thank you for your excellent support for all gimp-users.
Some time ago I asked you about the possibility to have a modified menu where to place the plug-ins and you said to me: you can do it yourself, source is provided. At that moment I was totally afraid for such a kind of activity for me, but now I would like to try about, thus comes my current help request to you:
1 - I know there are many C compilers around, which one do you suggest me to install? If free, probably the best choice would be the one you use
2 - (once installed) how do I compile the source? Using windows command lines or there is a front-end? And which should be the correct parameters?
3 - I know you are always preparing both 32 bits and 64 bits versions; is this a parameter also, or the simple fact to compile under win 7 32 bits will produce a win 7 32 bits executable?
4 - other helping suggestions...
Be patient with me (I'm an old man...) and - if you bother about the request - simply ignore this "caprice de diego"...
In any case, thanks for reading this post..

The hardest part of compiling in Windows is the setup of the environment.
May i suggest this website - partha.com

Partha shows how to setup your windows environment with MinGW/msys compilers (free).
He also shows you how to get that environment ready for compiling Gimp.You will need to (in my experience), compile Gimp before compiling c plugins for Gimp.

Thanks Rod
I will initiate my ... research&development using partha site, but if your experience indicates the ONLY way to start compiling plug-ins is by first compiling Gimp, I will abandone the game...I'm not so clever...
Thanks again

Well you need to compile Gimp first to get all the needed sources for the C plugins.
It isn't hard at all once the environment is sane.A bunch of folks here can help you along.
You do not see many folks compiling windows plugins for gimp.We need a few more around.
I have compiled gimp and c plugins for windows before and i am having a hard time compiling GEGL.
So don't give up. I'm not.

Once you get it right, it just works.That's windows.

If you have questions partha has a contact page on his site and will be more than happy to help you i am sure.
Or leave a message here and someone will help you.

@dinasset

I write in French, you can translate with Google

- Pour compiler, je vous conseille d'utiliser d'utiliser MingW/MSys.
- Point important : pour compiler un plugin il n'est pas nécessaire de compiler Gimp. Vous pouvez utiliser des environnements existants.
- Des environnements existent où il n'y a pas grand chose à faire :
32 bits :
http://download.opensuse.org/repositori ... .2/noarch/
64 bits :
http://download.opensuse.org/repositori ... .2/noarch/

Dans ces environnements Gimp est compilé, il ne vous reste plus qu'à compiler des plugins (avec gimptool ou avec ./configure make).

Divers :
Pourquoi utilisez-vous une version 32 bits de Windows? Si votre procésseur vous le permet je vous conseille très, très fortement de passer en 64 bits, surtout si vous vous lancer dans les compilations, cela peut durer des heures...
Plus vous aurez un ordinateur rapide moins le temps de compilation sera long.
Avec un Windows 64 bits vous pourrez tester en 32 bits et en 64 bits.

Thanks Samj, thanks Graechan.
I will proceed as suggested.
I'm obliged to choose 32 bits because my computer is 32 bits... maybe next one will be 64 bits.
I'll let you know if I succeed...

On my previous laptop (Core i3, 32bit OS) compiling Gimp took 15-20 minutes as fas as I recall. The speed increase from 32 to 64 bits isn't that obvious in many cases.

First two steps done:
1- downloaded and run mingw-get-inst.exe (latest version available); all options selected, now I have a MinGW folder with (hopefully) all what is needed in there
2- downloaded mingw32-gimp-2.8.4-1.4.noarch.rpm; and now my ignorance comes out: what to do with it? I cannot open it to see what it is; should I wait until ready to compile a plug-in? by googling I only saw it is a redhat packagemanager; so what?
Thanks

Seems a lot easier to do it this way then the way i go about it.

...another question: from where do I get gimptool? each of the links I found here and there by googling tell me "404 not found"...

Gimptool-2.0 comes with your gimp RPM i presume.
Look in the bin folder in C:\MinGW/bin or opt/gimp-2.8VERSION#/bin
Once you have the env set you should be able to open a console window and type
gimptool-2.0 --build plugin.c and it should find everything for you that the plugin needs to compile.

Thanks Rod.
Not having found gimptool in MinGW, I made some trials in order to "see" what is in the rpm file I downloaded (unreadable by itself): so I finally find out that the file must be unzipped twice (I use 7zip), in order to get it reduced to a normal readable windows folder, and inside - at the end of a log stair of folders - I found gimptool; excellent!, tomorrow I can proceed!....(hopefully)
thanks to all my supporters...

Good luck!

I don't seem to be the right guy for such a game (not for the tutorial, for the game itself to succeed).
Trials of this morning all unsuccessful.
1 - the gimptool included in the gimp package when launched to build does not find libglib-2.0.0
2 - I discovered that this module is inside the standard gimp folder (the one that every windows user of gimp installs), where by the way is also included gimptool (?)
3 - just for fun tried to use the gimptool in there, then no pkg-config found (obviously, that env is not for compiling)
4 - less obviously pkg-config is not included even in the package on 1.
5 - separately downloaded also pkg-config (double unzip again..) but I don't know where to put it
6 - in any case, the development package seems to be incomplete
7 - downloaded also development-gimp and debug-gimp packages from the address provided by samj, no improvement
8 - stop...sorry

pkg-config should go in C:/gtk
libglib - you need to get the GLIB dev and GLIB RPM's and unzip to C:/gtk also.
I am not sure how you directories are set though.

Thanks Rod.
Downloaded and unzipped (twice) all 3 glib packages found( basic, devel and debug).
Automatically they go into the same folder chain of the gimps-packages, so I guess it's correct: usr\i686-w64-mingw32\sys-root\mingw\bin..
now whatis not found is: libintl8.dll, which btw is in the development folder downloaded at first, following partha's indications (alias minGW under C:\).
Should I combine the folders in some way? mingw is also in the chain detailed above: should I merge the contents? to me (ignorant) it seems incorrect...
What do you suggest? Thanks

libintl8.dll should go in opt/bin and is a intltool file.
Did you get the INTLTOOL RPMs and install those?

If not dl those and install.

ok, i'll proceed with that, thanks