mingw-users

[Mingw-users] Confusion about the difference between GCC and VC6

[Woody Lu <woo...@gm...>]

Hey list:
I am a new guy here using MinGW under WINDOWS 7 envrionment.
I have a confusion about the difference between GCC and VC6 here:
After I compile and link a C source code by using GCC, when I run the 
EXE file,
beside the program's window thers is also a "command line window" popup.
If I close the "command line window" the program is closed too.
The same C source code, if I compile and link it with VC6, the program 
runs just
normal with only the program's window itself.

English is not my native language, I don't know if I have described my 
confusion
clearly enough. But I really want to know what cause the difference.

Woody

Re: [Mingw-users] Confusion about the difference between GCC and VC6

[Tor L. <tm...@ik...>]

The same happens also with MSVC6 if you build your program as a
console executable, which is the default if it has a main(). You must
be using the linker option /subsystem:windows without realizing.

(Or then your program has a WinMain() but not a main(), in which case
MSVC is "clever" enough to guess you want it to be produce a so-called
GUI executable and not a so-called console executable. MinGW does not
do this, you need to explicitly specify the -mwindows option to get a
"GUI executable".)

(Note that the terms "GUI executable" vs. "console executable" are
somewhat misleading. It's just a single flag in the executable header.
It has no impact on what the program actually can do. There is nothing
that forces a GUI executable to actually have a GUI, there is nothing
that prevents a console executable from having a GUI, etc.)

--tml