Ada: cmake and PLplot installation on Windows

Question

This is a follow-up of the post at Ada: plotting 2d graphs . I decided to create a new post as this is a separate issue. The installation of PLplot for Windows is at: http://www.miscdebris.net/plplot_wiki/index.php?title=Specifics_for_various_platforms#Windows . The installation is as follows:

cd plplot
mkdir buildmingw
cd buildmingw
cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=install ..
mingw32-make
mingw32-make install

I decided to go for the MinGW instillation by downloading the exe file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/ . I also got cmake for Windows here: http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html .

Now, on running the fourth instruction for installing PLplot (see above), I get:

C:\plplot-5.9.6\buildmingw>cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=ins
tall ..
CMake Error at C:/Program Files/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeDetermine
CCompiler.cmake:44 (MESSAGE):
Could not find compiler set in environment variable CC:

cl.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
CMakeLists.txt:38 (project)


CMake Error: Error required internal CMake variable not set, cmake may be not be
built correctly.
Missing variable is:
CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ENV_VAR
CMake Error: Error required internal CMake variable not set, cmake may be not be
built correctly.
Missing variable is:
CMAKE_C_COMPILER
CMake Error: Could not find cmake module file:C:/plplot-5.9.6/buildmingw/CMakeFi
les/CMakeCCompiler.cmake
CMake Error: CMAKE_C_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

C:\plplot-5.9.6\buildmingw>

I chose in the installation options to let cmake create the necessary system paths. I wonder why the environment variables CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ENV_VAR and CMAKE_C_COMPILER were not created during the installation. Any suggestion?

Thanks a lot..

Answer 1

I'm unfamiliar with CMake, but one of the methods in the FAQ How do I use a different compiler? may help. I'm guessing that the pre-built Windows binary can't know what compiler you're using, so it has to rely on the CC and CXX environment variables.