Windows Application Development on Linux

Make sure you have installed MinGW on Linux:

sudo apt install mingw-w64 gdb-mingw-w64

Optionally, for testing purpose, install also WINE:

wine-stable wine-development wine64 wine64-development

FYI, with my recent mingw32 installation, the location for needed DLL files are in :

/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/

ll /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/*.dll
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   482339 Mar 12  2018 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/libatomic-1.dll*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1190750 Mar 12  2018 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/libgcc_s_seh-1.dll*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1523015 Mar 12  2018 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/libgomp-1.dll*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1393636 Mar 12  2018 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/libquadmath-0.dll*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   387526 Mar 12  2018 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/libssp-0.dll*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 16229690 Mar 12  2018 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/7.3-posix/libstdc++-6.dll*

(this path should be added into PATH to make wine able to run our compiled EXE)

Example of Makefile:


APP=MyGUI
CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++
WRC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres

$(APP).exe : $(APP).o $(APP).res
$(CC) -mwindows $(APP).o $(APP).res -o $@

$(APP).o: $(APP).c
$(CC) -mwindows -c -o $@ $<

$(APP).res : resource.rc resource.h
$(WRC) $< -O coff -o $@

clean:
rm *.res *.o $(APP).exe



The Source code:

/*-------------------------------------------------*/
/* MyGUI.c - gui hello world                    */
/* build: gcc -mwindows MyGUI.c -o MyGUI.exe */
/*-------------------------------------------------*/
#include <windows.h>

char glpszText[1024];

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);

/******************************************************************************
* Main entry
******************************************************************************/
int APIENTRY WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, 
     HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
     LPSTR lpCmdLine,
     int nCmdShow)
{
 wsprintf(glpszText, 
   "Hello World\nGetCommandLine(): [%s]\n"
   "WinMain lpCmdLine: [%s]\n",
   lpCmdLine, GetCommandLine() );

 WNDCLASSEX wcex; 
              
  wcex.cbSize = sizeof(wcex);
 wcex.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
 wcex.lpfnWndProc = WndProc; /* set the callback */
 wcex.cbClsExtra = 0;
 wcex.cbWndExtra = 0;
 wcex.hInstance = hInstance;
 wcex.hIcon = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
 wcex.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
 wcex.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW+1);
 wcex.lpszMenuName = NULL;
 wcex.lpszClassName = "MYGUI";
 wcex.hIconSm = NULL;

 if (!RegisterClassEx(&wcex))
  return FALSE; 

 HWND hWnd;
 hWnd = CreateWindow("MYGUI", "MyGUI", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
      CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, 
      CW_USEDEFAULT, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

 if (!hWnd)
  return FALSE;

 ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow);
 UpdateWindow(hWnd);

 MSG msg;
 /* main loop */
 while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0)) 
 {
  /* we can intercept keystrokes here too if we want */
  TranslateMessage(&msg);
  DispatchMessage(&msg);
 }

 return msg.wParam;
}


/******************************************************************************
* Main callback
******************************************************************************/
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
 PAINTSTRUCT ps;
 HDC hdc;
                                                 
 switch (message) 
 {
  case WM_PAINT:
   hdc = BeginPaint(hWnd, &ps);
   RECT rt;
   GetClientRect(hWnd, &rt);
   DrawText(hdc, glpszText, strlen(glpszText), &rt, DT_TOP | DT_LEFT);
   EndPaint(hWnd, &ps);
   break;

  case WM_DESTROY:
   PostQuitMessage(0);
   break;
    
  default:
   /* for everything else unhandled, do this */
   return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
   
 }
   
 return 0;
   
}

To run:

wine64 MyGUI.exe

If we find issue that WINE could not find some MinGW's *.dll, create soft links in WINE's system directory to the MinGW's dll:

pushd ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system
cp -s /usr/lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/7.3-win32/*.dll .
popd



To debug the EXE:

i686-w64-mingw32-gdb <EXE code>