[AWS] Trouble compiling AWS on WinXP

[Colwell, Samuel C @ VTC]

I've used an older version of AWS on Linux for a while.  I'm interested in having my students use it in a class I'm teaching that covers Ada.  I'm currently having trouble getting AWS to compile on WinXP.  The setups I have tried are:

WinXP SP3 in a VirtualBox  setting (Linux host) with GNAT GPS 2009 and Cygwin (both downloaded last week), attempting to compile AWS 2.5.1 and 2.7.0
WinXP SP3 running native on an Intel iMac with Gnat GPS 2008 (20080521) and Cygwin (Cygwin just installed), attempting to compile AWS 2.5.1

On both setups, I get the following error at the "make setup" stage:

---------------------------------------------------
User at imac-win /cygdrive/c/aws_src$ make setup
Setup conversion support
gcc -c -I- -gnatA C:\aws_src\config\src\test_uconv.adb

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.
gnatmake: "c:\aws_src\config\src\test_uconv.adb" compilation error
make[2]: *** [../src/aws-translator-conversion.adb] Error 4
make[1]: *** [config_setup] Error 2
make: *** [setup_debug_static] Error 2
---------------------------------------------------

The version of make I'm using is:

---------------------------------------------------
User at imac-win /cygdrive/c/aws_src$ make --version
GNU Make 3.81
Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This program built for i686-pc-cygwin
---------------------------------------------------


I've been following the instructions at:
http://www.j-paine.org/installing_aws_for_xp.html

The second setup with the older versions of GNAT and AWS was an attempt to use the same versions described at the above page.

The sources are in c:\aws_src, gnat is in c:\gnat

The only thing in common with these two setups is the newest version of Cygwin.  I don't know how to download an older version of Cygwin.  I tried installing MSYS instead, but I couldn't figure it out (it appeared I was missing the "mv" command, and I didn't know where to get it or how to install it).

I'm thinking that the issue here might be in Cygwin.  I attempted to confirm this by running the gcc command that failed in cmd.com directly.  It appeared to work:

----------------------------------------------------
C:\aws_src>gcc -c -I- -gnatA C:\aws_src\config\src\test_uconv.adb

C:\aws_src>
----------------------------------------------------

I directory listing confirms test_uconv.ali and test_uconv.o in the working directory.

I'd prefer to use GNAT GPL 2009 with the newest version of AWS, as GNAT GPL 2009 is already installed on the lab
computers for my students.  I'd prefer a static library so my students can take their executables with them without having to hunt for DLLs. 

I'd also enjoy any suggestions on how to bring the library, pre-compiled, to the various workstations.  The reason for this is that the students may not have access to Cygwin or MSYS on the lab machines.  If I could give them a .zip file containing the pre-compiled AWS static libraries, with instructions to unzip it in a certain place and set some environment variables, would that work?

-Sam Colwell