[Howto] How to compile VICE for Windows

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The information in this article applies to the following versions of VICE:

• all Windows versions

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PROBLEMEXPOSITION

You want to hack the Windows version of VICE or compile it for other reasons, but you cannot find the Windows sources to do so, or you have problems compiling them.

SOLUTION

VICE comes in a one-source-tree-for-all fashion, so you simple have to get the source tarball from http://www.viceteam.org/ to get the Windows sources. Anyway, they are some things you might stumble on, so read further:

• Unlike as with the other ports, compiling WinVICE is a little tricky if you use the GNU GCC compiler. It's much easier to use MS Visual C++ 5.0 or 6.0, just start src/arch/win32/vice.dsw and you're inside.
• Using Visual C++, you might get into some more problems when opening the project file. Visual Studio might not recognize its own files, thus, after double-clicking, you have a blank Visual Studio window. This is because Visual Studio expects a CR/LF after each line in the files (so-called "DOS"- or "Windows"-encoding), while the files are stored with only a LF after each line (so-called "Unix"-encoding). You have two options to fix that:
  • Unpack the tarball with WinZIP or another packer and enable the option "CR/LF conversion" (or similar)
  • Use a tool to convert the LF to CR/LF with any file with *.ds? in src/arch/win32. For example, if you're using CygWIN and have unix2dos installed, just issue unix2dos *.ds? while in src/arch/win32.
• Even if Visual C++ recognizes its own files, you might have problems compiling, that is, the compiler throws errors or the executable does not work. There is a good possibility that you have to apply a service pack (SP) on Visual C++. Apply it and try again.

STATUS

This document is for information purpose only. The behaviour reported is intentional in the VICE versions listed at the beginning of this article. The VICE team is not responsible for the link provided in this article or some files you downloaded from there.

LINKS

• VICE source tarball: http://www.viceteam.org/
• WinZIP: http://www.winzip.com/
• CygWIN: http://www.cygwin.com/
• Visual Studio (Visual c++) 6 SP5: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/updates/sp/vs6/sp5/.
  Notice: There might be a newer SP, so you might want to have a look at http://www.microsoft.com/download/ and search for yourself.

REVISION

• March 21, 2005: In the description above, there was dos2unix used. Anyway, it should be unix2dos. Thanks to Christophe Kohler for pointing this out.
• February 13, 2005: Corrected link to VICE homepage
• June 27, 2003: Hint for applying the service pack and CR/LF included
• September 18, 2002: Original release of this document