This branch contains changes that were useful when trying to cross-build branch_release-1-8 for MinGW on GNU/Linux, using the i586-mingw32msvc-gcc compiler, and using Wine to allow running the build executables during the build itself, and for `make check'. I eventually discontinued this line of work, when it became clear that it was less reliable than just building in MSYS on Windows, and that nothing new or useful was emerging!