Re: [AD] MSVC 8 cl flags

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Evert Glebbeek wrote:
It has nothing to do with hating Microsoft, it has to do with their compiler not implementing C99 features we might/will need (stdint.h being an obvious one) -- which is somewhat fair as it's supposed to be a C++ compiler, not a C compiler,

I don't take this one. C89 compiler is still C compiler. Even C K&R compiler is C compiler. And, definitely, C89 compiler isn't C++ compiler :-)

However this has absolutely nothing to do with Allegro up to 4.2 as
it is written in pure C89, supporting other C89 only compilers like
gcc 2.95. (BTW MSVC 6 is from 1996, it cannot be C99 even if they want).

If Allegro > 4.2 would be C99 (I have nothing against) then simply drop
C89 compilers like MSVC. But don't say that C89 compiler is not C compiler.

deprecating standard C library functions (though I doubt they'll have the nerve to actually remove them) and being generally a pain when it comes to helping write cross-platform code.

Sadly C library was not written with security in mind. If I understand MS correctly they are not going to remove anything, they are just marking potentially unsafe functions. And this is IMHO good because this is what are warnings for. In fact, the only thing which I don't understand is why deprecation of such dangerous functions like gets was not done in C99.

Lets be realistic for a moment: it's going to be very hard to support a compiler none of the main developers has that doesn't follow a standard you're trying to follow and runs on an operating system no one (of the main developers) uses on a regular basis.

Yes, this is why current Allegro is C89, and btw IIRC you can switch gcc to c89 mode (I doubt that anybody is doing that :-) )

So relax, although you might see some frustrated Microsoft bashing now and then, plans to drop MSVC support altogether aren't very realistic, in my opinion.

As long as the dll and headers will be usable with msvc there is not so big problem with dropping msvc for building the dll.

--
Regards,
    Michal

ICQ# 175762750




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