building Mozilla Firefox on Windows with cygwin

Prologue: I am being swamped with comments such as "why don't you run Windows version of Firefox" and "you cannot use Visual Studio 6.0 to compile it". The goal of this project is to enable me to compile and modify Firefox source on Windows. If you would like to help me out with this, by all means do contact me. The project description is below. I want to be able to work on Mozilla Firefox (version 0.8) browser on my Windows XP computer. I want to get a step by step explanation of what do I do in order to build Firefox, both in Release and Debug modes and get and be able to run the executable. If it is necessary to set any environmental variables, it is appropriate to put them into a script file/s that I could load in bash or DOS, as may be needed. My actual building of the progam would involve supporting me through a chat room or comment system to solve whatever irregularities that may turn up. I am also looking for a sample .NET app using Gecko ActiveX browser control with instructions about how to replicate it myself. The project will be considered completed after: 1) I am able to compile Firefox from source code and run it to browse the web. The executable should essentially equivalent to the published one in capabilities, i.e. all of the modules should be properly built. 2) I am able to make a .NET app using Gecko ActiveX control and use it to display a webpage, based on your instructions 3) I am able to make some change to the hot key processing (like Control D combination) and address bar processing modules of the browser and compile only that module (not the entire project), run the executable and observe the change. What change you will suggest is up to you, as long as it involves a change to the C++ source code and requires recompilation. I have got installed full package of cygwin, Visual Studio 6.0, and Visual Studio .NET (Academic edition). I will install other stuff if needed. The mozilla tarball is available from ftp://[login to view URL] (it is the latest stable version, I believe). If you have any further questions about my computer configuration, I will answer through the comment system. I would guess that if you have never built Mozilla before, you should do so on your own computer, document what you do, and then instruct me how to do that. ## Deliverables 1) a step by step guide to building Firefox and demonstrating the two conditions of completion I have listed above (in Description). Along with instructions, there should be comments about what is going on, to the best of your knowledge. 2) any bash script or .bat files for setting environmental variables, as appropriate, to be used according to explanations in the guide. 3) supporting me in am synchronous mode via the comments sytem while I am building it and verifying completion of the project ## Platform Windows XP, cygwin