How to compile SPTK on Windows

This HowTo is designed to help you if you decide to use Microsoft Visual C++. Starting from SPTK 3.3, the support for VC++ 6.x is dropped. You may use Visual Studio .NET (2003 or 2005). You may also use MinGW from Cygwin, but it isn't covered by this document. If you follow these steps (below) it should be fairly easy.

  1. Download FLTK from FLTK website and unpack it to the top level directory of any logical disk. Rename FLTK directory to just fltk (exclude the version number). Compile it by using the FLTK VC++ solution file (select any test project). You can find that file in \fltk\visualc directory.

  2. Optionally, download and install ASpell for Win32 and at least one dictionary for it. Download and unpack aspell-dev to the top level directory of the same logical disk as FLTK. Rename aspell-dev directory to just aspell (exclude the version number).

  3. Optionally, but highly recommended, install the ODBC manager and drivers for your favorite database(s). You can get it with the installation of Microsoft Office, or with any of the major SQL database clients.

  4. Download SPTK from SPTK website and unpack it to the top level directory of the same logical disk as FLTK. Rename FLTK directory to just sptk (exclude the version number). In that case you don't have to correct any project files.

  5. Copy \sptk\sptk\sptk-config.h.win file to \sptk\sptk\sptk-config.h. Edit the file with any editor to define options you'd like to have in SPTK. Options you can change, are named as HAVE_*. For instance, if you don't want ASpell support – you can change the define for it to 0 like this: #define HAVE_ASPELL 0

  6. Compile it by using the SPTK VC++ solution file (selecting any example project). You can find that file in \sptk\VC6 directory.

  7. The resulting libraries would be placed into \sptk\lib. If you want to create your own project using SPTK, make sure you include fltk and sptk directories to the include path list, and fltk and sptk libraries to link libraries list. As a quick solution, you can copy and modify one of the VC++ project files from \sptk\examples and modify it in any test editor, or directly in Visual Studio.

  8. Copy the SPTK themes from \sptk\.themes.sptk into Windows directory, most likely C:\Windows\.themes.sptk.

  9. The most important step. Have fun!