>
> 1) What precisely is the difference between the cross-compiler and the
> native compiler in terms of the files that are generated from the build and
> the files that are generated when compiling projects with the
> cross-compiler,
>
There should be no difference between the created files. GCC is GCC, and if
the target is the same, the output is the same.
> 2) What is difference between having a multilib and a non-multilib
> cross-compiler? I assume multilib has both 32 and 64 bit libraries and
> therefore the capability to produce 32 and 64 bit output? Does non-multilib
> (with --target=x86_64-w64-mingw32) produce only 64 bit output? and,
>
You're completely correct. Without multilib, only one kind of output can be
produced. With a multilib enabled compiler (see TDM-GCC for example), you
have a default target, and force the other to be active by calling gcc/g++
with "-m32" or "-m64" to build for the other target.
> 3) Is there any major advantage to having a native Win64 compiler?
>
Generally, x64 applications (on Windows at least) have access to more CPU
registers without any specific x64 optimization. If this translates into a
speed boost in the case of GCC or binutils, I don't know. What I do know is
that some large libraries (like Qt's QtGui and wxWidgets) force ld (when
using GCC 4.5+) to use an enormous amount of memory that makes a 32-bit
version of ld run out of memory. Using a x64 native ld.exe allows it to
access enough memory. (I believe this memory usage is being treated as a
bug)
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