1. Cygwin

Cygwin is a Unix/Linux-like environment for MS Windows --- for the Unix/Linux devotee it offers a breath of fresh air to MS Windows computing. It consists of two parts: a DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Unix/Linux emulation layer providing substantial Unix/Linux API functionality; a large collection of ported utilities and applications, which provide Unix/Linux look and feel. Much more information can be found at the Cygwin homepage.

The simplest way to install Cygwin is to download and run the setup utility. This will download all necessary packages and software and install it for you. Instructions as they appear on screen choosing the following options:

• Install from Internet.
• "Local Package Directory" of something like C:\cygwin_install.
• Install root directory of C:\cygwin --- some packages, including XFree86, seem to assume Cygwin will be installed here so it's safest to stick with this path.
• Default text type: Unix --- this is important: see installation of XFree86, below.
• Install for: all.
• Use IE5 settings.
• Choose a mirror within the UK, e.g., ftp.mirror.ac.uk.
• At the package-selection screen you can afford to be generous: as of 2003 Feburary 20, a complete installation of everything, which even includes the Apache Web server(!), is 800Mb.

The downloaded packages can be saved and, for example, copied to CD together with the setup utility (setup.exe) to installation on a second machine --- this will of course be much faster.

1.2. Simple Usage of CygWin

Cygwin will create both menu entries --- Start->Programmes->Cygwin->Cygwin Bash Shell (API Reference, FAQ and User's Guide are also available) --- and a desktop shortcut to the shell (unless you ask the setup utility not to do these things). Choosing one of these will start a bash shell --- Windows has become usable at last!

Once the shell is up and running, behaviour and functionality is just like that on a Unix or Linux box.

1.3. File Structure and Drives

Unix and MS Windows mount drives very differently --- Unix as one tree, and Windows as a collection of lettered-drives. So you should not the following before using Cygwin:

• Window's C:\ drive becomes /cygdrive/c/ --- similarly for M:\...
• This means, for example, that whilst the libgcj documentation says CLASSPATH and LIBRARY_PATH should be set to /usr/local/<DOTS>, these should be /cygdrive/c/usr/local/<DOTS>.

1.4. More Documentation

Full documentation is available online at the Cygnus website and also via the Start Menu, as mentioned above (assuming you chose to install it).