Can someone show me how to build a file with "make"?

[kilogold]

Hi guys...

I'm sorry I'm bothering everyone with such elemental information, the thing is I've never had exposure to coding like this before. I've always coded with VC++ so I was used to just typing away and then hit the "build" button. Now my problem is that I've learned how to use everything in the devkit fairly well so I've been able to make a few apps the thing is that I'm stuck coding this one app and I need to debug. I know how to debug using psp-gdb but I need the Insight IDE because there are just too many commands that I need to memorize to debug efficiently...

Now...
I downloaded Insight 6.6 (ftp://sourceware.org/pub/insight/rel...ht-6.6.tar.bz2) and I thought that what I'd get is an executable but alas I must build the program. I don't really know how to build the program cuz there are so many makefiles all over the place with different extensions and I don't know what I need to have in my PC installed so I can install them...

So my questions are:
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Do I need to install a specific compiler or tool to be able to compile this?
If I do which one should I need?
If I need a compiler do I HAVE to use gcc or can I use my Visual Studio8?
I am in the process of installing cygwin and toolchain on my computer. Will this let me build Insight 6.6?
What should I do, once I have the tool, to build the application?
Why do they package the source and make you build it instead of hosting a simple excecutable?
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I do realize that I have many questions to be answered and people could be doing something better with their time rather than just helping some noob get his facts straight, but I would greatly appreciate any help I can get since I really have tried to find answers for myself so as to not bother anyone.

Thanks for your time guys

[hardhat]

1. I recommend gcc to compile insight, but in theory it would work with other compilers. gcc would be the path of least resistence though.
2. gcc from cygwin would work fine. You need the gcc mingw version (which is available seperately or in cygwin by default).
3. It is quite possible to have VC++ launch make, and make can launch gcc, so the answer is yes and yes. Do a google search for a how to, I expect.
4. Yes it will. If you use Oopo's psptoolchain.sh (and install all of the minimum needed cygwin packages), it will auto build psp-insight.
5. svn co svn://psp.ps2dev.org/psp/trunk/psptoolchain
then read the readme, and follow the directions there. Be patient if you haven't found a list of what the minimum list of needed cygwin packages are.
6. If you use Unix, there are many different CPUs and operating systems that would require different executables. So the philosophy is to give you the source, and you can install it, or modify it if you prefer, then install it. Read the GNU free software manifesto maybe?

[foebea]

kilogold, If I understand what you are describing you might find this page useful http://www.jetcube.eu/archives/2008/02/entry_74.html
This page is a tutorial to use the devkit with Visual Studio, it also describes at the very end a bit about getting the debugging features of VS to work wth psp code. Worth a shot maybe.