ARM64 version

[craigloewen-msft]

Is your feature request about something that is currently impossible or hard to do? Please describe the problem.

Is it possible to add a dedicated ARM64 version of gVim for Windows?

Describe the solution you'd like

An arm64 architecture version of gVim for Windows to be shipped.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Right now gVim for Windows works on ARM but it's emulated. It would be great to get a native version.

Additional context

None.

[chrisbra]

It seems there is no Windows ARM64 image support available yet at Appveyor. And even it there was, it may take some time to tweak the build process. I don't have a machine to test this out.

[crutkas]

@chrisbra can you reach out to Craig and myself about that 2nd problem? clint.rutkas@microsoft.com; Craig.Loewen@microsoft.com

[crutkas]

@chrisbra happy to send a device to you for testing.

For Appveyor Arm64, is this needed for unit tests or for building? Looks like it could do an Azure image which does have Windows on Arm. https://www.appveyor.com/docs/server/running-builds-on-azure/

[chrisbra]

I did reach out to the mentioned two email addresses

[craigloewen-msft]

Hi @chrisbra we didn't end up receiving that mail, could you send it again? Maybe try: crloewen@microsoft.com

[chrisbra]

Tried again from my usual address (you can check the git commits). You should have received it. Thanks

[crutkas]

Got it and responding now

[compnerd]

GHA has windows ARM64 runners at this point, would that potentially help? I've also managed to get vim itself to build using cross-compilation for ARM64. The piece that is a challenge is the installer (my experience there is limited to WiX rather than NSIS based installers).

[crutkas]

@chrisbra thoughts on how GitHub actions could help here

[chrisbra]

haven't looked at it. Currently trying to make Vim building work. I build one Vim locally here: https://github.com/vim/vim-win32-installer/releases/tag/v9.1.1385
It does not contain Ruby and MZScheme interface (I couldn't get that to compile natively) and the Gettext libraries are still amd64 ones. But it includes an arm version of libsodium.

[khmyznikov]

@chrisbra I want to try to help investigating the GH actions adoption for vim build, could you share the instruction how you build the arm version locally?

[chrisbra]

I am in the process of making a PR here that will make appveybor.bat work correctly with ARM. Shouldn't take that long. Once this is done, I'll check out what possibilities we have to run this on github ARM runners to automate it.

[khmyznikov]

@chrisbra let me know how you build it locally, I can help with runners.

[chrisbra]

it's mostly working now: https://github.com/chrisbra/vim-win32-installer/blob/refactor/.github/workflows/windows-arm-build.yml

I still need to verify that the build is all complete but should be almost done. PR is here: #375

[khmyznikov]

@chrisbra I've checked the installer from your artifacts
Noticed minor issue about the version naming. It tells it's x64 but runs as Arm64:

[crutkas]

@khmyznikov created a new issue for this so it can get tracked correctly