GlossaryΒΆ

runtime library
Library implementing routines to allow compiled code to interact with the runtime environment, such as the operating system. For example the implementation of malloc and friends belongs in the compiler runtime library.
MSVC
Microsoft Visual C++
The Microsoft standard C / C++ compiler. Part of Microsoft Visual Studio.
MSVS
Microsoft Visual Studio
The Microsoft toolchain for developing applications on Windows. Components include MSVC (C / C++) as well as C#, other languages, and an IDE.
gcc
The GNU compiler collection. When we mean the C or C++ compiler specifically, we write “gcc c” or “gcc c++”.
MSCRT
Microsoft C runtime library - see MS runtime libraries and table of MSVC versions and CRTs.
glibc
The GNU C runtime library
mingw
mingw: “a contraction of ‘Minimalist GNU for Windows’, is a minimalist development environment for native Microsoft Windows applications. It is a port of gcc to Windows that links against the MSCRT rather than the gcc libc.”. Also see the mingw wikipedia page.
mingw-w64
mingw-w64: “Mingw-w64 is an advancement of the original mingw.org project, created to support the GCC compiler on Windows systems. It has forked it in 2007 in order to provide support for 64 bits and new APIs.” See: mingw-w64 history and the mingw-w64 wikipedia section.
binutils
GNU binutils: a set of tools to work with compiler output, such as: ld (the GNU linker); as (the GNU assembler); dlltool (makes files for building and working with DLLs); ar (works with archives of compiler object files). See also the binutils wikipedia page.
LTO
See: GCC LTO; interprocedural optimization.