Setting up a Windows compilation environment

You will need:

gcc

http://farfetch.intrepid.cx/gcc-4.1.2-mingw-setup.exe

(Edit away if it's not the right version)

git

http://msysgit.googlecode.com/files/PortableGit-1.6.2.1-preview20090322.exe

make

http://garr.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gnuwin32/make-3.81-bin.zip

Don't forget to copy libintl3.dll from the gnuwin32/bin package into the same directory that you put make.exe

setting the path for git and make:

as administrator, right click My Computer -> properties -> Advanced -> environment variables -> find 'path' in the lower pane.

double click it and add "; path-to-binary-folder-of-git; path/to/make; ... "

you'd also need the boost library

http://www.boost.org/users/download/

(it's kind of large)

put it in a path like this: C:\MinGW\include\c++\3.4.5\boost

Next, run git-bash.bat

cd to the factor repository and type: make winnt-x86-32

Hurray! it should now start compiling.

after it finishes, you'll need to bootstrap.

Alternatively (instead of make, bootstrap) you can run ./build-support/factor.sh update winnt-x86-32