Support for MinGW cross-compilation?

[Semphriss]

Should we support MinGW compilation from Linux for Windows?

Having all builds possible from Linux would simplify custom builds on servers.

[tobbi]

There's quite a cross-compilation in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M

[Zwatotem]

Support is always fine, however I wouldn't rely on having Windows builds done on Linux as it may make possible companion workflows (e.g. automatic tests, performance metrics) harder to work with. I assume that there's zero difference in final exec, compilation time may be lower. If it's just a question of changing a flag in CMake it may be worth it. If it takes more, I don't think so. Apart from this case, I don't think there's someone specifically interested in being able to compile and run on different environments. Grzegorz Przybylski

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[Semphriss]

I've compiled multiple programs with MinGW and they've been working well; SuperTux has a slightly messier buildsystem (rip CMakeLists.txt) which makes it slightly more difficult to support cross-compilation.

Vcpkg has community support for MinGW; all dependencies except OpenAL build properly. If we omit that, I think it might be possible to cross-compile SuperTux with as much stability as native builds.

Cross-compilation is interesting for me as it allows me to build for more targets from Linux. I wanted to make my own buildsystem using my devices, and I don't have a stable enough budget to pay for Windows servers; MinGW builds could save me a lot of time.