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> Regardless of which way to declare variables is better, dropping
> support for MSVC 6 or later would be quite foolish.
[...]
> MSVC's popularity with new programmers will only increase, and
> refusing to acknowledge that is a big mistake. On a.cc, MSVC builds of
> Allegro are downloaded almost 3 times as much as MinGW builds and
> about 1 to 1 with source versions. And so even if you unfairly grant
> MinGW all the source downloads, MSVC users still account for around
> 40% of all downloads.
>
> Also, MSVC 6 is still widely in use. And until the upgrade path to
> Express editions is clear, it probably still will be for a while. I
> think going forward with 4.3, if MSVC 6 is majorly holding Allegro
> back then it would be fine to drop it. In any case, I really don't see
> how MSVC 6 holds back Allegro anymore than Watcom, BCC32 or DOS
> support does. Switching to a supposedly better coding style or
> refusing to add a few hacks is not worth losing a good portion of your
> user base. It's not good to get trigger happy just because you don't
> happen to use something.
>
> When MSVC stops compiling standard C applications, then it should no
> longer be considered as an official target. Until then, it should
> remain a top target for Allegro, because--like it or not--it's
> probably the most popular IDE for Windows.
Yes, well said.
Evert