[SDL] Some instructions to install SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer and SDL_net under cygwin/mingw

[Kein-Hong Man]

christoph.senjak at web.de wrote:
> [snip]
>> If you don't really need to build from sources, do consider taking
>> the easy route of grabbing developer's packages. Installing
>> SDL_{image|mixer|net|ttf} using libsdl.org's mingw developer's
>> packages is dead easy, just a few library and header files. I've
>> [re]set-up my mingw/msys dev environment a few times, and the
>> SDL_* developer's packages are very easy to install and are
>> trouble-free.
> I dont need to build from source (though i would like to). But i chose
> the way because i thought it was simpler. There are no real
> Installation-Instructions in the binary tarball, i.e., where to put
> the include- and libfiles, to use them with MSYS. I am completely
> missing any instruction, couldnt find any. Just putting them in the
> same directory as my Source is not good - for example if I want to
> build a Game or whatever using a Makefile.

Building from source is nice if one is willing to invest the time, 
but on Win32, getting all the dependencies right (for zlib, jpeg, 
png, etc. etc.) is something I'd rather avoid. The dev package is 
easier to maintain for me.

This manual method worked well for me:
(1) Put header file in the SDL header file directory, 
c:\msys\1.0\include\SDL (or equivalent) a.k.a. /usr/include/SDL, 
because sdl-config includes this directory in the search.
(2) Put libraries in c:\msys\1.0\lib (or equivalent) a.k.a. 
/usr/lib, that should already be in the lib search path for gcc. 
Keep the DLL there as well, for copying over to the executable 
directory.

-- 
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia