secondvoice/WINDOWS_MINGW.md

🚀 Windows Build WITHOUT Visual Studio

Build SecondVoice using MinGW (GCC) - Only ~500MB instead of 10GB+!

---

⚡ Why MinGW?

	Visual Studio	MinGW
Size	10-20 GB	~500 MB
Install Time	30-60 min	5-10 min
Compiler	MSVC	GCC
Result	SecondVoice.exe	SecondVoice.exe
Performance	Same	Same

Conclusion: MinGW is 20x smaller and works perfectly! 🎉

---

📦 One-Click Setup (5 minutes)

Step 1: Run Setup Script

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

cd "E:\Users\Alexis Trouvé\Documents\Projets\secondvoice"
.\setup_mingw.bat

This will automatically install:

• ✅ Chocolatey (package manager)
• ✅ MinGW-w64 (GCC compiler)
• ✅ CMake (build system)
• ✅ Ninja (build tool)
• ✅ Git (if not installed)
• ✅ vcpkg (dependency manager)

Total size: ~500MB Install time: 5-10 minutes

Step 2: Restart Terminal

Important: Close and reopen PowerShell to reload PATH.

Step 3: Create .env

copy .env.example .env
notepad .env

Add your API keys:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Step 4: Build!

.\build_mingw.bat --release

Step 5: Run!

cd build\mingw-release
.\SecondVoice.exe

Done! 🎉

---

🔧 Manual Installation (Alternative)

If setup_mingw.bat doesn't work, install manually:

1. Install Chocolatey

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

2. Install Tools

choco install mingw cmake ninja git -y

3. Install vcpkg

cd C:\
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
setx VCPKG_ROOT "C:\vcpkg"

4. Restart Terminal & Build

# Close and reopen PowerShell
cd "E:\Users\Alexis Trouvé\Documents\Projets\secondvoice"
.\build_mingw.bat --release

---

🎯 Build Options

Release Build (Optimized)

.\build_mingw.bat --release

Output: build\mingw-release\SecondVoice.exe

Debug Build (With symbols)

.\build_mingw.bat --debug

Output: build\mingw-debug\SecondVoice.exe

Clean Build (From scratch)

.\build_mingw.bat --clean --release

---

📊 Comparison: MSVC vs MinGW

Build Flags

Compiler	Debug Flags	Release Flags
MSVC (Visual Studio)	/W4	/O2 /W4
GCC (MinGW)	-Wall -Wextra -g	-O3 -Wall -Wextra

Optimizations

Both produce highly optimized executables:

• MSVC /O2: Full optimization
• GCC -O3: Aggressive optimization

Performance: Nearly identical in practice!

Executable Size

• MSVC build: ~5-8 MB
• MinGW build: ~6-9 MB

Slightly larger with MinGW due to static linking, but negligible difference.

---

🐛 Troubleshooting

Error: "gcc not found"

Solution:

# Check if MinGW installed
where gcc

# If not found, install:
choco install mingw -y

# Restart terminal

Error: "VCPKG_ROOT not set"

Solution:

setx VCPKG_ROOT "C:\vcpkg"
# Restart terminal
echo %VCPKG_ROOT%

Error: "Chocolatey not recognized"

Solution: Not running as Administrator

1. Right-click PowerShell → Run as Administrator
2. Re-run setup_mingw.bat

Build fails with "undefined reference"

Cause: vcpkg dependencies not built for MinGW

Solution:

# Clean vcpkg cache
rmdir /s /q build\mingw-release\vcpkg_installed

# Rebuild
.\build_mingw.bat --clean --release

Error: "Cannot find -lportaudio"

Cause: vcpkg toolchain issue

Solution:

# Force vcpkg integration
%VCPKG_ROOT%\vcpkg integrate install

# Rebuild
.\build_mingw.bat --clean --release

---

🔍 Verify Installation

Check Tools

# GCC
gcc --version
# Should show: gcc (x86_64-win32-seh-rev...)

# CMake
cmake --version
# Should show: cmake version 3.x.x

# Ninja
ninja --version
# Should show: 1.x.x

# vcpkg
echo %VCPKG_ROOT%
# Should show: C:\vcpkg

Test Build

.\build_mingw.bat --release

# Should complete without errors
# Output: build\mingw-release\SecondVoice.exe

---

📦 Distribution

The .exe built with MinGW is standalone and can be distributed to any Windows 10/11 machine.

What to include:

SecondVoice/
├── SecondVoice.exe  (from build\mingw-release\)
├── config.json
└── .env.example

User needs:

• Windows 10/11
• Microphone
• Their own API keys in .env

No need for:

• MinGW
• Visual Studio
• CMake
• vcpkg

---

💡 Why This Works

Static Linking

vcpkg builds all dependencies as static libraries by default on Windows:

• PortAudio: libportaudio.a
• ImGui: libimgui.a
• etc.

These are linked into SecondVoice.exe, so no DLLs needed!

MinGW Runtime

The MinGW C++ runtime (libstdc++, libgcc) is also statically linked, making the .exe truly portable.

---

🚀 Performance Tips

Faster Builds

# Use all CPU cores (default)
.\build_mingw.bat --release

# Ninja automatically uses -j$(nproc)

Smaller Executable

Add to CMakeLists.txt (optional):

if(MINGW)
    target_link_options(SecondVoice PRIVATE -s)  # Strip symbols
endif()

Then rebuild:

.\build_mingw.bat --clean --release

Result: Executable ~4-5 MB instead of ~6-9 MB.

---

📚 Resources

MinGW-w64

• Website: https://www.mingw-w64.org/
• GCC Docs: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/

Chocolatey

• Website: https://chocolatey.org/
• Packages: https://community.chocolatey.org/packages

vcpkg

• GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg
• Docs: https://vcpkg.io/

---

🎉 Summary

Before (Visual Studio)

Download: 10-20 GB
Install: 30-60 min
Total: 1 hour+ setup

After (MinGW)

Download: ~500 MB
Install: 5-10 min
Total: 15 min setup

20x faster setup, same result! 🚀

---

🔄 Switching Between MSVC and MinGW

You can have both installed:

Build with Visual Studio:

.\build.bat --release
# Output: build\windows-release\Release\SecondVoice.exe

Build with MinGW:

.\build_mingw.bat --release
# Output: build\mingw-release\SecondVoice.exe

Both work perfectly! Use whichever you prefer.

---

Last updated: 20 novembre 2025 Recommended for: Developers who want lightweight, fast setup