we use $(RM) <stuff to remove> as the command elsewhere in the makefiles. we could replace $(RM) with just "rm" elsewhere in the makefiles and then remove the RM definition.

in the Qt makefile system RM is defined to use del.exe with some switches, I forget the exact syntax. I was going to look it up and replace the windows RM definition with this. I can only assume this was the original intention of using an RM definition in the first place

In theory, if we do the RM command right, and use some of the other Qt makefile syntax we could potentially build on windows from a cmd.exe prompt rather than needing bash. I haven't explored how far this can be taken...