building the client libraries with gcc?

I need to build the postgres driver used by the opensource aolserver
webserver.  As the phrase driver implies, this little piece of glue enables
aolserver applications to interact with postgres.

I have successfully built pg 7.1.2 on cygwin, but find that my driver needs
a piece of pg that isn't built with the standard 7.1.2 cygwin
configuration, namely: I need pglib.dll and pglibdll.lib, the dll and the
library interace.  (I gather these are referred to as the client libraries.)

I found doc/src/install-win32.sgml which details how us Visual C++ can be
used to build these client libraries.

Is there any easy way to build these client libraries with the cygwin tools
and gcc?

I have little experience with the arcana of sophisticated *nix makefiles
and even less with the Windows variant nmake files.  I am sure it would
take me forever to understand what the win32.maks require.  (To quote Dr.
Evil, can you throw me a bone?)

If the easy thing to do is to install Visual C++ (I've been VCC free for
three years now) can you tell me if it's safe to build the client libraries
using VC++ on the same configured tree that I just finished building pg
itself on?  And having built the client library, is it safe once more to
build pg, or should I clean the tree and reconfigure?

Thanks,

Jerry Asher

=====================================================
Jerry Asher                       jerry@hollyjerry.org
1678 Shattuck Avenue Suite 161    Tel: (510) 549-2980
Berkeley, CA 94709                Fax: (877) 311-8688