Haskell SDL Bindings on Windows

I recently wanted to get the Haskell SDK bindings running on windows. It was a bit trickier than I thought it would be — mostly due to a terrible macro SDL used to redefine the `main()` function. I used the SDL 1.2 bindings as they’re a little more mature than the SDL 2 bindings, which are pretty much brand new. Here is how I got things working:

## 1. Install the Haskell Platform

Download and run the installer [from the Haskell website](http://www.haskell.org/platform/windows.html).

## 2. Get the msys Base Environment

Download `mingw-get-setup.exe` from [the MinGW website](http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Getting_Started) and run it. You should _only_ have to select the msys-base meta-package (which will install several other packages). Then from the menu, select “Installation” -> “Apply Changes” and press the “Apply” button to download and install. Once the changes are applied, you can close the installer.

Take a note of the install path, it’s usually `C:\MinGW` unless you change it. We’ll call this the `mingw-install-path` (even though we’re only installing msys).

## 3. Get SDL Development Libraries

Download the SDL-1.2 Win32 mingw32 development libraries from [the SDL website](http://libsdl.org/download-1.2.php) (they’re usually at the bottom). Extract them to some directory. We’ll call this the `SDL-install-path`

In the extracted directory there should be a file: `bin/sdl_config`. Open it in a text editor. There should be a: `prefix=/usr/local/cross-tools/i686-w64-mingw32`. Replace it with your SDL-install-path, but make sure you replace all the backslashes in the path with for slashes, and remove the colons. So if your SDL-install-path was:
`C:\Developer\SDL-1.2.15` you’d put `/c/Developer/SDL-1.2.15`.

If your `SDL-install-path` has spaces in it, you lose two nerd points and should go move it to a path without spaces.

Then, add the directory containing sdl_config to your path, and add `SDL-install-path`\lib to your path.

## 4. Install SDL Haskell Bindings

Run: `mingw-install-path\msys\1.0\msys.bat`, (which will probably be: `C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\msys.bat`). This should open a shell window.

In the shell window, type: `cabal update`. If this is a fresh Haskell platform install you’ll probably be prompted to update cabal-install. _DON’T_.

Then type: `cabal install sdl —-extra-include-dirs=SDL-install-path/include —-extra-lib-dirs=SDL-install-path/lib`. For example: `cabal install sdl —-extra-include-dirs=/c/Developer/SDL-1.2.15/include —-extra-lib-dirs=/c/Developer/SDL-1.2.15/lib`.

## 5. Get SDL_Image Development Libraries

Download SDL_image windows development libraries here: [libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release-1.2.html](http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release-1.2.html). They’ll be named something like: `SDL_image-devel-1.2.12-VC.zip`.

Extract it to a directory. We’ll refer to this directory as `SDL_image-install-path`

Take SDL_Image.h from `SDL_image-install-path`/include and copy it to `SDL-install-path/include/SDL`. Then take everything in `SDL_image-install-path/lib/x86` and copy it to `SDL-install-path/lib`. Note the `x86` in the above path, don’t copy the wrong one.

Once we get everything working, you can delete the `SDL_image-install-path` as we’ve copied everything we need out of it.

## 6. Installing SDL-image Haskell Bindings

In a directory of your choice (but from the msys shell) do a `cabal unpack SDL-image`. This will download and unpack the SDL-image package from hackage.

Open `SDL-image-0.6.1\Graphics\UI\SDL\Image\Version.hsc` in an editor. Underneath #include “SDL_image.h” add:

#ifdef main  
#undef main  
#endif  

From the msys shell `cd` into the unpacked SDL-image directory and run: `cabal install –extra-include-dirs=/c/Developer/SDL-1.2.15/include/SDL –extra-lib-dirs=/c/Developer/SDL-1.2.15/lib`. (Note that this is slightly different command from the SDL cabal install, though it looks similar.)

## 7. Building a Template SDL Haskell Project

Now if you want, you can switch back to a normal windows cmd shell. In a directory of your choosing do a `git clone https://github.com/Manticore/haskell-sdl-template`. Then `cd` into that directory and do:

– cabal install –only-dependencies
– cabal configure
– cabal build

Copy image.png to `dist\build\Resources` (you’ll have to create the `Resources` dir), and run `dist\build\sdltemplate\sdltemplate.exe`.

Ta da!