WIN32.md

Building hsSDL on Win32

• Bit Connor [email protected]
• Trevor Elliott https://github.com/elliottt

This is how I managed to get hsSDL working on Windows XP. I used GHC version 7.6.1

1. Download the SDL mingw development package from the SDL website http://www.libsdl.org. The file I used was SDL2-devel-2.0.0-mingw.tar.gz.

2. Extract it somewhere. You will get a directory called SDL2-2.0.0. I used C:\SDL2-2.0.0.

3. Modify SDL.cabal file from hsSDL distribution.

   • There is a line:

     Build-type: Custom
     

     Change it to:

     Build-type: Simple
     

   • If you're building with an x86_64 version of ghc, add these lines to the end of the library stanza:

     Include-Dirs:   C:\SDL2-2.0.0\x86_64-w64-mingw32\include\SDL2
     Extra-Lib-Dirs: C:\SDL2-2.0.0\x86_64-w64-mingw32\lib
     Extra-Lib-Dirs: C:\SDL2-2.0.0\x86_64-w64-mingw32\bin
     

     Otherwise, add these three lines:

     Include-Dirs:   C:\SDL2-2.0.0\i686-w64-mingw32\include\SDL2
     Extra-Lib-Dirs: C:\SDL2-2.0.0\i686-w64-mingw32\lib
     Extra-Lib-Dirs: C:\SDL2-2.0.0\i686-w64-mingw32\bin
     

4. Open a Windows Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> "cmd.exe") cd into the hsSDL distribution directory and run:

   cabal install

5. Compile the example program. Run:

   cd Examples
   ghc --make Test.hs

   You should get a Test.exe file. Before running it, copy the SDL.dll file into the directory. You can find it here:

   C:\SDL-1.2.12\bin\SDL.dll
   

   Now run Test.exe, press spacebar a few times to watch the smiley face jump around, and finally press Q to quit.

6. Using SDL from GHCi requires a trick. If you try running Test.hs you will get this error:

   > ghci Test.hs
   Prelude Main> main
   Loading package SDL-0.4.0 ... can't load .so/.DLL for: SDLmain (addDLL: unknown
   error)
   

   To get ghci working, you must make 2 copies of SDL.dll called SDLmain.dll, and SDL.dll.dll:

   copy SDL.dll SDLmain.dll
   copy SDL.dll SDL.dll.dll

   Now everything should work!

Peace, Bit Connor [email protected]