[AD] Allegro 4.9.20 + MSVS 9

[John Murphy <wonsungi@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I've compiled the latest version of Allegro 4.9.20 with MSVC Express 2008. Just sharing my results and a suggestion. Great work you guys!

Link error: There is a linker error with _vsprintf, but vsnprintf works OK

I had to make a small change to demos/speed/a4_aux.c:

-#if defined(__WATCOMC__) || defined(_MSC_VER)
+#if defined(__WATCOMC__) // || defined(_MSC_VER)

Suggestion: Modify the demos and examples so they run from both inside and outside the MSVS IDE.

MSVS places the EXE files in a folder named after the configuration (Debug, Release, etc)

The demos/examples assume their data folders are at the same level as the EXE file.

When run from the IDE, this assumption works because the IDE reforms relative paths as if the EXE file were in the parent directory (No "Debug/Release/etc").

However, the a5steroids demo resource locater uses an absolute path so MSVS does not reform the path; it does not run inside or outside MSVS until the data files are properly located relative to the EXE file.

The examples use relative paths, so they work from inside MSVS, but they don't work when run from outside MSVS.

Now these are only minor annoyances, but it can be confusing to people who are just starting with Allegro and MSVS. I propose some simple fixes:

A. Always use relative paths and try "../data/foo.dat" if "data/foo.dat" is not found.

B. (or) as part of the MSVS build, create a symbolic link to the "../data/" folder in the output folder.

I can supply patches for the above; however I don't have much experience with the Allegro dev process and git-svn. Also I can only test the MSVC platform.

Please tell me if you'd like my patches, and how to test/apply them to the SVN repository.

John