Hi Allin,

"I don't own a copy of the Microsoft C compiler, which is an expensive proprietary product".

I hear you Allin, but you're probably wrong on this: Even I always use VS professional or above edition which does require payment, I believe MS does offer VS Express edition which is FREE.  Here is a link I just find by google search:  http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/visual-csharp-express

And I believe VS Express edition should be enough to compile libgretl. VS professional and above edition does offer some other capabilities, but that's mainly for .Net capability. For unmanaged C++(the ansi C++), it's basically the same for all VS version. (I have no intention to do advertisement for MS. MS are creating sometimes unnecessarily complicated stuff but they occasionally also make some good stuff, like this user friendly IDE, especially when it's free).

I'll try to compile libgretl with VS 2010 on Win 7 based on you guys instruction. If it works, I'll be glad to submit the VS project file I used if it can be of any help. Meanwhile, you guys are so welcomed to download free VS Express and try compile by the original source code developer which maybe much easier and correct(if you guys can write complicated makefile, figuring out how to config VS project file for compiling libgretl should be a piece of cake).  

By the way, I myself am very interested to be an open-source enthusiast.  Talk to you guys later. Thank you so much.

Lake
From: Allin Cottrell <cottrell@wfu.edu>
To: da wang <dawang2002@yahoo.com>
Cc: Gretl development <gretl-devel@lists.wfu.edu>; "r.lucchetti@univpm.it" <r.lucchetti@univpm.it>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Gretl-devel] where is libgretl.h?

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012, da wang wrote:

> Sad to hear "Nobody in the gretl team has tried that". I know you guys create great useful software, but meantime, please think more for MSVS user.

I hear you, but try thinking about it from the other side: I don't own a copy of the Microsoft C compiler, which is an expensive proprietary product. If someone donated a copy to me I might be tempted to produce an nmake file or project file for libgretl. I have Windows 7 on my university-supplied computer; I don't often boot into Windows (the computer also has a Linux partition) because I don't like the operating system, but I might do so in order to help other people -- if I didn't have to pay big money for the proprietary software I'd need.

> I assume there are lots of developer like me, who have used VS IDE for years but don't dare to try gcc or alike since those compilers are not very user friendly(I am so afraid of writting makefile mannually, on the contrary, in VS, it's just a matter of mouse click...).

The gretl package contains a mingw-style Makefile ready to run. But if it's just a matter of mouse-click in VS, please submit a VS project file and we'll be happy to put it on the gretl website. I don't mean to be snarky: if building gretl on Windows via native MS methods is ever to be easy, we need Windows users who are also open-source enthusiasts users to contribute their expertise.

Allin Cottrell