Hi all, I intend to join the Google Summer of Code programme for 2026 under gcc, to work on the compiler. I have previously authored 2 commits to the compiler, commit f6c5f83 which introduced a feature test macro for the active Windows threading model and a more significant commit with the help of many others, commit 0aea633 which implements Windows native Thread Local Storage, allowing gcc to bypass emutls for Windows.
Historically, gcc does not receive as much attention and maintenance for its Windows port as it does for its main platforms, which leads to it lagging behind the primary platforms, such as Linux based ones, pretty significantly in terms of robustness, resulting in features and other areas of the compiler simply being broken and not working properly on Windows, as is reported by some users. As a primarily Windows user of gcc, I wish to improve at least these pain points with using gcc to compile for Windows targets, whether it may be broken or missing features, to benefit my own work that uses gcc heavily and also others that use the compiler for Windows targets. I will be proposing work for such improvement on Windows as my Google Summer of Code application. To do this, I'm collating a list of all the issues and missing features for gcc with this target. While I do have a few already written down, I'd like to know/hear about as many issues that the community may know of with using gcc as a Windows compiler so I can add them to my list, so I have a better picture of everything that needs to be done to improve gcc for Windows. I initially thought of looking at https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/WindowsGCCImprovements but it's become clear that the page is, unfortunately, hopelessly outdated (Listing Exception Handling as a potential idea when it's already been implemented, and even mentioning the GNU Java compiler!). Thanks in advance, and have a pleasant rest of the week ahead! best regards, Julian
