[Brian Daniel <daniel_brian@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks everyone for your help!

I truely had to very carefully read every line of that http://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsdg_html/#ChSetupWin32 part of the Wireshark Developer's Guide. 

I compiled a wireshark win32 and it runs as expected! 

 

Lesson learned: Read the documentation carefully!

 

I list these details of the mistakes I made to hopefully help someone who may also be making the same mistakes I made:

I had skipped the installation of cygwin. Tried again after installing cygwin

I had skipped the installation of python. Tried again after incorrectly installing python30

uninstalled python30 and loaded the python26. Tried again

Then I was google searching for cygwin bison and found it was documented clearly in the Developer's guide as part of the cygwin installation. Duh!

Tried again... Finally I realized the command I was missing:

nmake -f Makefile.nmake setup

Basically, I finally followed the documentation repeatedly until I stopped making my dumb mistakes.

 

Then I attempted compiling 64-bit with these two changes in config.nmake
WIRESHARK_TARGET_PLATFORM=win64
CPU=IA64
nmake -f Makefile.nmake setup
nmake -f Makefile.nmake distclean
But this one failed:
nmake -f Makefile.nmake all
   :   :   :   :
Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 15.00.30729.01 for 80x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

file_util.c
unicode-utils.c
mpeg-audio.c
privileges.c
str_util.c
type_util.c
Generating Code...
        link  /INCREMENTAL:NO /NOLOGO -entry:_DllMainCRTStartup -dll kernel32.li
b  ws2_32.lib mswsock.lib advapi32.lib  /DEBUG /MACHINE:X64 /MANIFEST:no  /DEF:l
ibwsutil.def /OUT:libwsutil.dll  /IMPLIB:libwsutil.lib  ..\image\libwsutil.res
file_util.obj unicode-utils.obj mpeg-audio.obj   privileges.obj  str_util.obj
         type_util.obj C:\wireshark-win64-libs\glib\lib\glib-2.0.lib  C:\wiresha
rk-win64-libs\glib\lib\gmodule-2.0.lib  C:\wireshark-win64-libs\glib\lib\gobject
-2.0.lib
file_util.obj : fatal error LNK1112: module machine type 'X86' conflicts with ta
rget machine type 'x64'
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\BIN
\link.EXE"' : return code '0x458'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\BIN
\nmake.exe"' : return code '0x2'
Stop.

C:\wireshark>

 

This was done on my XP Pro 32-bit PC so I'll try this on my Windows vista 64-bit Home Premium and let you know how it goes.

Thanks everyone!
Brian