Windows cross-platform hardening

Where

Build system (cmake/), C++ engine (src/), Fennel runtime (assets/lua/)

Problem

The project was developed on Linux. Porting to Windows revealed 10+ categories of issues concentrated in a 2-day sprint (June 17-18, 2026):

• MinGW QOS header conflicts requiring type stubs and conditional compilation
• Backslash vs forward slash path separator divergence in Fennel module resolution, unit file resolution, and hot-reload path matching
• CRLF line endings corrupting clipboard content
• .exe suffix missing from binary search paths in tests
• Fennel cache keys using forward slashes regardless of platform

Why it matters

Windows is a primary distribution target (Windows installer, .zip in releases). Without cross-platform hardening, every new feature risks introducing platform-specific bugs.

Plan

The June sprint resolved the known issues. Remaining concerns:

• Ongoing vigilance: new path manipulation code must handle both separators
• CI covers cross-compile for MinGW but not full Windows-native builds
• Some features (CEF in-world browser) are Linux-only with no Windows handler yet

Related

• Goal: Core Platform
• See: commits from 2026-06-17 to 2026-06-18
• Blocks: broader Windows feature parity (CEF, audio devices)