I want to try out Allegro 5, and to do so I went off to download and install MinGW.

The last time I installed MinGW, and every time before that, it has been a hassle. Well, here I am doing it again, and nothing has gotten any better.

1. Go to MinGW.

2. Stare at the website trying to find the download link (It's a small sub-link on the left side).

3. Notice that installation documentation is only on the main page because it's "popular content" and it's not even visible unless you scroll down.

4. Find that the download page is just a link to SourceForge with 6 different folders

5. Feel dumb, go back, click on install docs.

6. Install doc says I've gone to the wrong page and sends me along to Getting Started.

7. Notice it must be installed in a folder without spaces

8. Sift through the wall of text to find the tiny link to mingw-get-inst.

9. Download latest installer from SourceForge.

10. Wait 5 minutes for the install to finish.

11. Edit my PATH variable manually, which is a pain, because the Automated installer didn't do it or give an option for it.

12. Notice that make is still called mingw32-make for reasons I cannot even fathom.

13. Complain on Allegro.cc, because I can't think of anyway to help MinGW.

What it should have been:

1. Go to MinGW.

2. Click GIANT green button that says "Install Now".

3. Instantly takes me to the download, not some intermediate page on Sourceforge.

4. Save, Run, all the default options are sensible, install finishes a minute later. DONE!

Someone please buy mingw.com so we can setup a sensible website and then SEO the heck out of it to out-rank mingw.org. Then developers across the globe will rejoice and get back to working instead of fumbling around on useless Drupal and SourceForge pages.

EDIT: Just in case it wasn't obvious, I respect the MinGW and GCC developers for putting out a great compiler. I just think it's a shame that there is barrier like this that prevents people from using their wonderful product.

The solution is obvious: fork the project and make your own version.

Well if you want to install Allegro 5 you can check this site
C.S. I did it since I had the same problem.

The solution is obvious:

• register downloadmingw.com

• place a giant green button on that page that links directly to the download

• 

• profit

Your website would receive more hits than the official one in very little time.

That is what I hate about SourceForge. Most projects do that (Allegro too, IIRC). It's ugly and it's not user-friendly.

SF is irrelevant. It's about the official web site providing an obvious link to the download that the majority of the visitors are looking for.

With Allegro the whole website is in SVN, anyone can modify it by sending a patch.

And if you can make a completely new and better website we'd even be happy to replace the current one. But the current system is rather simple to use, just plain text files (using pandoc markup) which are easy to modify and easy to test locally.

There is no official web maintainer though so about the only changes are made by all those people sending patches I just mentioned - complain to them if you don't like something

Compared to MinGW, Allegro's site is great!

I completely agree with Billybob. These days I go here instead. It just seems completely crazy to me that the MinGW homepage doesn't provide something so easy to download and install.

Solution. Select your language from the dropdown and you'll immediately be freed from the crap that is MinGW.

I don't have any problems with it. Takes max 15 minutes to install everything.

Your solution is to trade a nightmare install with a nightmare of use? The real solutions are here, here, and here (and a few hundred other sites).

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So your proposal in light of me proposing trading a nightmare for a nightmare is to swap in a nightmare that will give you insomnia (literally) for the next 5 years?

Quoted for Truth.

Well if you were already using Linux from the start like any licensed Internet user should be doing, then you wouldn't be in this conundrum, would you?

Oh, but yea. Billybob, I am totally sympathetic. That sucks.

It's like trying to drive somewhere without any maps or street signs.

I drive places without maps and street signs all the time.

You're too young to drive.

To a destination you've never been to before?

This meme is hilarious.

I never have a problem with mingw except some silly gdb crashes.
Editing your path is something you should be used to, at least since the gcc for dos.

Haaa, I remember the real satisfaction that came out when for the first time I had a working DJGPP / Rhide install working and compiling allegro ^^

Adding MINGDIR and mingw/bin path to your environment variable isn't THAT hard.

That said, I must admit that the download link and install docs aren't that evident.