Max Berger

First, you need to download MinGW. You can either click through the websites mentioned above or go directly to the MinGW download area. Look for the Package "Automated MinGW Installer". There, download the file ending in .exe. The file name should be something like "MinGW-5.1.4.exe". You can also download MinGW Version 5.1.4 from the link given here.

You may also download an older version, and follow the instructions given in the section called “Older Instructions”:

Most of the options in the MinGW 5 installer are pretty straightforward. I will point out some of the more tricky options.

The first one of such options is which "MinGW" package to install. Any of those should work just fine, but I would recommend Current.

Figure 38. MinGW 5 install

MinGW will ask which components to install. Either select All or at least make sure that you have the g++ compiler checked. This is needed for C++ support.

Figure 39. MinGW 5 install (2)

When asked for the install folder, please do not change it. You will have a lot of trouble later on, especially if you chose a path that contains spaces.

Figure 40. MinGW 5 install (3)

That's already it for MinGW. There are two more steps: MSYS and the Environment Variables.

Checkpoint: To test if everything worked, please reboot. Then open up a terminal. (Start/Run, type CMD). Try these commands:

gcc --version

should print the version of gcc. If you get a "File not found", try logging out and logging back in, or even rebooting your computer. If it still does not work, you have not installed MinGW correctly. You may also need to set your environment variables manually (see below).

g++ --version

should print the version for g++. You did select the "g++ compiler" I hope. If not, install again!

This section is completely optional. You may skip it and go directly to the section called “MSYS 1.0.11”.

If you want to use the debugger, you may have to install it separately. This is the case with MinGW 5.0.2, it may be different in other versions. Download it from the same page, look for a package starting with gdb and ending with .exe. At the time of this writing (Apr 29) the current version was "gdb-5.2.1-1.exe". Install (double-click) that .exe, select all the default options (make sure you select the same MinGW directory as you did during the MinGW install).

I have received a report that gdb-6.3-2 does not work. So I would advise using the older version or waiting for a newer one.

Checkpoint:

gdb --version

should print the gdb version. This is optional.

Unfortunately MinGW is not enough. We also need the MSYS tools from the same download page. Go there again, to the "Current" section and look for "MSYS Base System". Again, look for the file ending in .exe, as this time: "MSYS-1.0.11.exe". You may have to expand the "Release Candidate" section. Or you may use the link here to MSYS-1.0.11.exe. Download it and start it. You should get a window like this:

Figure 41. MSYS install

If you accept all the default options, after a while there should be a black and white window, similar to this:

Figure 42. MSYS asking for post-install

To continue the install type in y and then Enter. The next question reads like this:

Figure 43. MSYS asking for MinGW

Which you can also answer with y Enter. The next question is a little bit more tricky:

Figure 44. MSYS asking for path to MinGW

What they want to know is where you installed MinGW to and that you replace all backward slashes (\) by forward slashes (/). If you followed the instructions, the answer here will be:

C:/MinGW

Caveat: If you have not used the default paths, but instead have installed MinGW in a different location, such as C:/Program Files/MinGW, where the path contains spaces and / or is longer than 8 characters you may have to replace that particular path component with its DOS short pathname, such as C:/PROGRA~1/mingw.

Caveat2: The installer may be case sensitive. Please make sure you have written MinGW in the same capitalization as during your first install, in some cases you will have to enter c:/mingw (note capitalization!).

The very last question just asks you to press a key:

Figure 45. MSYS installing correctly

Where you can press any key you like to continue. Setup will come back and ask you if you want to read a welcome note and the README file. You probably don't want either one, but it does not hurt to look. Anyways, once you hit "Finish" you are done with the setup. Now you have to set up your Path environment variable.

Figure 46. MSYS is done

Now we are finally ready to install Eclipse. Go to the Eclipse website and look for "Downloads". It will automatically try to figure out your OS and give you an option like "Download now: Eclipse Platform SDK 3.1, Windows.". Do it. You will receive a .ZIP file. Use either FilZip or your favorite ZIP Program (Windows XP and Mac OS X have .ZIP support build in) to unpack the file. Move the unpacked folder to any location, for example C:\Program Files\eclipse. You can now start Eclipse by double-clicking it.

Figure 60. Eclipse installed into C:\Program Files\eclipse

However you installed eclipse, you should now be able to run it. Double-click the icon or start the appropriate script in UNIX and Eclipse's splash-screen will appear:

Figure 61. Eclipse splash screen

Immediately after that Eclipse will ask you for your workspace location. It defaults to: C:\Program Files\eclipse\workspace which is actually very bad. Depending on where you want to use Eclipse, please set your workspace to the appropriate folder. If you are in a computer lab, check their policy on personal home folders. If you are on your own computer, a place within your personal settings is usually best:

Figure 62. Eclipse asking for workspace

If you always want to use the same workspace, you may select the Use this as the default... and you'll never have to worry about workspaces again. This is usually a good idea once you've used Eclipse for a while. Finally Eclipse starts up with the welcome screen:

Figure 63. Eclipse welcome screen

And if you select the "Go to the workbench" in the top right corner, then you are right in Eclipse and you can start developing in Java. However, since we want to develop in C++ just continue with the next section.

Eclipse by default comes with support for programming Java, the support for C/C++ (the C Development Toolkit) has to be installed as an update.

In the "Help" menu select "Software Updates" and the "Find and Install...". You should get something like:

Figure 64. Find and Install software updates

Select "Search for new features to install", and then "Next >". You should get:

Figure 65. Select update sites

Leave "Ignore features not applicable to this environment" checked and de-select all update sites (you will probably have less in there than I do). Select "New Remote Site" and then enter the following information:

Note: What name you enter does not matter. Here is the URL for cut-n-paste: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/eclipse3.1

Figure 66. Add new update site

Hit "OK". Now select "Eclipse CDT" and then "Next >". It should connect to the Eclipse CDT update site and look for the newest version. Then it displays a window like this one:

Figure 67. Select CDT to install

Select the latest version of the "Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools". (3.0.1 at the time of this writing) Do not select any other features. Hit "Next >".

In the next window, you will have to "accept" the license, and then select "Next >".

It will again show you an overview, which you can just accept and select "Finish".

It will warn you that the Eclipse CDT is an "unsigned feature". But you can just ignore that and select "Install All".

Figure 68. Unsigned JAR

Downloading and installing will take a while. Once its done it will ask you to restart Eclipse. This is a good idea, so select "Yes".

Figure 69. Restarting the workbench

Once Eclipse has restarted you now need to configure it for your computer.

Eclipse 3.1 with CDT 3.0.0 (and 3.0.1) has a bug on windows! If you are on windows, please close eclipse, and delete the file spawner.dll in eclise\plugins\org.eclipse.cdt.core.win32_3.0.0\os\win32\x86. This bug appears every time you try and run short programs (they will not show any output). More information is available in Eclipse Bug 102043. This bug is fixed in CDT 3.0.2.