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Comment by DASD | Hacker News Reader

Is Rust always going to require MinGW on Windows? I'm very interested in Rust but this is a stopper for me if Windows executables are going to need this.

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It is the intention to support MSVC: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues/1768

Thank you. For those interested in the original FAQ(https://github.com/mozilla/rust/wiki/Doc-language-FAQ) and hence my reason for asking...

"Does it run on Windows?

Yes. All development happens in lock-step on all 3 target platforms. Using MinGW, not Cygwin. Note that the windows implementation currently has some limitations: in particular tasks cannot unwind on windows, and all Rust executables require a MinGW installation at runtime."

Note that that bug is filed under the "backwards compatible" milestone, which is the absolute minimum for a 1.0 release. Barring drastic circumstances, you should assume that MSVC support will land before then.

However, Rust really needs Windows-savvy developers! If you can help, please do.

Found the list of windows bugs after a bit of searching: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues?direction=desc&labels...

Seems like there are a few straightforward "fixables" in there.

Do the executables require MinGw to run or just to build?

EDIT: DASD above says "all Rust executables require a MinGW installation at runtime."

Both, last I checked. Plus it requires a very specific version of the gcc runtime to be installed (4.5 I think), that doesn't come bundled with the installer.

You can't really criticize a language for not being supported by a vendors proprietary compiler framework, especially when it targets native. Also, what is wrong with llvm + the rustc?

I don't think anyone was criticizing it so much as saying it presented an obstacle for him.

No, it's a valid complaint: Rust shouldn't require MinGW. The biggest problem here is that Rust doesn't include its own linker, and the moment it cannot use link.exe.

It may be a valid complaint in the sense that not supporting MIPS is a valid complaint. Rust, because of the decisions made in its design, is going to attract developers of low level systems, server-client architectures, etc. If you are developing the type of systems that Rust excels at, wouldn't you also be the type of developer that has no problem developing on and targeting Linux, BSD, MacOS, etc? Or am I missing something? Obviously Servo would be a good use-case, but apart from browsers, nobody targets Windows native software anymore.

(we actually do support MIPS)

So, nobody server-client architectures on Windows?

Have you been inside of one of the many .NET shops around the globe?

Games too. Rust is starting to find a niche in game development, and Windows still rules the roost there.

Well at least it's not Cygwin...

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