[m-rev.] for review: announce MinGW64 port

[Julien Fischer]

For review by anyone.
---------------------------

Announce the MinGW64 port.

NEWS:
	As above.

README.MinGW:
	Extend the instructions here to describe to build the MinGW64
	port of Mercury.  (They are pretty much identical to those
	of the MinGW port, except for one additional configuration
	option.)

	Delete the stuff about configure invoking the Microsoft
	Management Console; that was fixed some time ago.

Julien.

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3a44f7c..601a61b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ Changes to the Mercury standard library:
 * We have added predicates to the calendar module for folding over the days
   in a given range of dates: foldl_days/5, foldl2_days/7 and  foldl3_days/9.

+Changes to the Mercury compiler:
+
+* Generation of 64-bit code on Windows using the MinGW64 port of GCC
+  is now supported, i.e. the x86_64-w64-mingw32 architecture is now
+  supported.
+

 NEWS for Mercury 12.08
 ----------------------
diff --git a/README.MinGW b/README.MinGW
index 391cee7..6ae0beb 100644
--- a/README.MinGW
+++ b/README.MinGW
@@ -1,17 +1,26 @@
+This file documents the port of Mercury to Windows using the either the MinGW
+or MinGW64 ports of GCC, i.e. the i686-pc-mingw32 or x86_64-w64-mingw32
+configurations.
+
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 BUILDING WITH MINGW

-It is possible to build the Mercury compiler using the MinGW version of GCC.
-The advantage of using MinGW is that the generated executables will run
-natively on Windows without the need for any support environments like Cygwin.
+Using the MinGW port of GCC you can build a Mercury compiler that can generate
+executables that will run natively on Windows without the need for a support
+environment like Cygwin.  Using the standard MinGW version of GCC will result
+in a Mercury compiler that generates 32-bit executables.  To build a Mercury
+compiler that generates 64-bit executables for Windows you will need to
+use the MinGW64 port of GCC.

-A Unix like environment is however still required to build the Mercury
-compiler.  MSYS or Cygwin can be used for this purpose.
+NOTE: a Unix like environment is required to build and install the Mercury
+compiler.  MSYS or Cygwin can be used for this purpose.  A Unix like
environment
+is only required for installing Mercury, you do *not* require one to use
+Mercury once it is installed.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-BUILDING A MINGW COMPILER UNDER MSYS
+BUILDING A MINGW OR MINGW64 COMPILER UNDER MSYS

 To build the source distribution under MSYS follow these steps:

@@ -29,6 +38,10 @@ To build the source distribution under MSYS follow
these steps:
     Details of alternative MinGW and MSYS installation methods may be found
     on the MinGW website.

+    To build a version of Mercury that generates 64-bit executables you will
+    require the MinGW64 version of GCC (available from
+    <http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net>).
+
     To build the Erlang grade with MinGW and MSYS you will require the Windows
     version of the Erlang/OTP distribution to be installed on your system.
     The Erlang compiler (erlc) and runtime (erl) needs to be in the MSYS
@@ -58,7 +71,6 @@ To build the source distribution under MSYS follow
these steps:
         export PATH=/c/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/:$PATH

     See README.CSharp for further details.
-	

 2.  Unpack the source distribution with a command like:

@@ -74,9 +86,13 @@ To build the source distribution under MSYS follow
these steps:
     will be interpreted differently by the MSYS shell than by the generated
     executables, resulting in a broken installation.

-    If you get a dialog from the "Microsoft Management Console" with the
-    message "The selected file cannot be found." simply dismiss it.
-    This is because configure looks for a program called "mmc".
+    If you are building a Mercury compiler that targets MinGW64 then you
+    must also invoke configure with the following option:
+
+       --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
+
+    This will cause mmake to use the MinGW64 tool chain.  Ensure that the
+    MinGW64 tools are in your PATH before running configure.

 4.  run: `make' and then `make install'.