Create a Windows Build Environment for an Open Source Project

Start with existing Linux gtk program available at [login to view URL] It has been ported to Windows on several occasions already, but I need that re-done. The key requirement of this job is to provide a set of clear instructions that will enable me to reproduce the build environment so the software will compile and run any Windows 7 (or higher) computer. My ultimate goal is to be able to do source code development and debugging with gdb in Windows as well as Linux on this open source package. So this project is not "writing new software" but "producing a build environment for existing software." The work result will be a set of instructions something like this: "1. download this to such-and-such directory; 2. tweak that; 3. download this other thing; 4. download another thing; 5. modify something in the environment; 6. git source code; 7. make clean; make; make install." The idea is not to create a build environment that will be obsolete in 6 months, but one that, with minor adaptations as time goes on, will keep up with new versions of the third-party libraries. Like the software itself, the result will be open source. What I need could be accomplished in one of two ways: via cross compiler (compiling on Linux to build a Windows binary), or, preferably, to construct the build environment in mingw/msys (or equivalent) to let me do the builds and debugs on Windows. One new feature on our Linux package is that it uses gettext for internationalization. This feature is in its infancy stage, but we have not built the software on Windows before with gettext. This project will require close communication with me. I will provide what I know so far on the Linux build environment, and what little I understand about prior Windows build environments.