I'm trying to understand how MinGW ported GCC to Windows. I know that GCC originates from the Unix world and, for myriad reasons, cannot simply be copied across to Windows as an executable nor built from source using the native toolchain provided by Windows. This is because program creation and execution differ between Unix and Windows.
Specifically, I understand that GCC needs to interface with the operating system through runtime libraries found in expected locations. Assuming that the analog of these libraries are the DLLs found on Windows, then GCC somehow has to link with these DLLs instead.
Using GCC as a concrete example, I'd like to know: What did MinGW change in the GCC source and build to port it to Windows?
I've looked at the MinGW-w64 source, but it was beyond my comprehension. I've also tried reading the Wikipedia pages for both MinGW and MinGW-w64 to learn about their context and aims. However, I still feel like I haven't answered my question.
