README: add note about how to build on Windows-native using gcc, and a bit of editing

diff --git a/README b/README
index cd1b3429f35d397eec693bf57d1e57e6884f0b48..4bb568e959ea4eb462010faf83e8aedba2e40ed3 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -23,6 +23,29 @@ following web page for instructions:
 http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/DownloadDebianPackages
 
 
+BUILDING ON WINDOWS:
+
+If you are building on Windows, then the easy way is to install cygwin and
+use cygwin version of Python and the cygwin versions of all dependencies
+(which will happen naturally if you follow this README -- note that you
+cannot use Windows-native versions of any of the dependencies -- they all
+have to be cygwin versions).
+
+The second-easiest way is to install cygwin and use cygwin development tools
+such as bash, GNU make, gcc, etc., but install the Windows-native version of
+Python and the Windows-native versions of all of the dependencies.  If you
+create a distutils config file (as per
+http://docs.python.org/inst/config-syntax.html ) and put "compiler=mingw32"
+in it, then you can follow the rest of this README and the dependencies will
+all be automatically built (by the cygwin gcc compiler) as Windows-native
+libraries.
+
+The third-easiest way is to use a Microsoft compiler or some other compiler.
+This README does not explain how to do that.  You are on your own for now,
+but please feel free to contribute a document which explains how to build all
+these dependencies using your favorite compiler.
+
+
 DEPENDENCIES:
 
 If you aren't getting a pre-compiled binary, then you'll have to ensure that
@@ -33,11 +56,13 @@ There are two kinds of dependencies, "manual dependencies" and
 satisfied for you when you install Tahoe, but if something goes wrong, please
 see the EASY_INSTALLABLE DEPENDENCIES section below.
 
-Note: All of the manual dependencies can probably be installed through your
+All of the manual dependencies can probably be installed through your
 standard package management tool if you are running on a modern Unix
 operating system.  For example, on an debian-like system, you can do "sudo
 apt-get install gcc make python-dev python-twisted python-pyopenssl".
 
+The Manual Dependencies:
+
  + a C compiler (language)
 
  + GNU make (build tool)