[AD] proposing a new official .lib name for VC static CRT version

[Matthew Leverton <meffer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Distributing applications made with VC8 is a bit troublesome due to
the CRT. Under Windows 98/2000 it is generally not an issue (works as
before), but Windows XP expects things to be done in a precise
(different) manner. The end result is a headache because you have to
do different things depending on the target OS.

The easiest way to avoid problems is to statically link the CRT.
However, Allegro needs to be built specially for that to work. That's
fine, but both versions of the lib end up with the same name, which
makes it difficult to write an easy tutorial.

For example, the following could be added to makefile.vc:

# -------- link as a static library --------
ifdef STATICRUNTIME
   IMPLIB_BASENAME = $(VERSION)_s_srt.lib
else
   IMPLIB_BASENAME = $(VERSION)_s.lib
endif
-----------------------------------------------------

Backward compatibility (regarding documentation) isn't an issue
because I doubt anyone even realizes the STATICRUNTIME flag exists.

So what do people think of the idea? And if in favor, what file names
would you suggest? Technically all six versions could be relabelled if
the static runtime option is used.

For example, the static runtime versions might be named like:

alleg.lib  => alleg_srt.lib
alld.lib => alld_srt.lib
allp.lib => allp_srt.lib
alleg_s.lib => alleg_s_srt.lib
alld_s.lib => alld_s_srt.lib
allp_s.lib => allp_s_srt.lib

This breaks 8.3, but I'm not sure that really matters...

I would like to distribute the static runtime versions (in addition to
the normal versions) with the VC8 binary distribution, so having
different names would be helpful. Obviously I could use non-standard
names or sub-folders, but I'd like to create as little confusion as
possible. It's also hard to write a tutorial that tells a person how
to statically link the runtime if I cannot be sure that he has the
proper lib file.

Keep in mind that nothing would change if a person continued to build
Allegro without the STATICRUNTIME flag. The different names would only
occur if the user explicitly requested the static runtimes.

--
Matthew Leverton