[fdo-internals] FDO RFC 18 - Migrate to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

[Mateusz Loskot]

Greg Boone wrote:
> Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>> 
>> I feel a bit like Mateusz, though perhaps less strongly.  In the
>> long term I think a more compiler agnostic build environment would
>> be desirable.
> 
> [GB] In the future, it would be nice to have such a non-VisualStudio 
> build system in place that compliments the existing VisualStudio 
> project files. I am open to suggestions regarding this issue as long 
> as we can maintain the 2008 VisualStudio project files and that 
> developers are not forced to maintain multiple build 
> configuration/project files within a single project.

IMHO, it makes a little sense to maintain two or more building systems.
My suggestion was to completely switch to new building system in future.
Currently, I'd choose cmake. This builder is a kind of meta-builder
and it generates Visual Studio project files portable configuration scripts.
Solely use of cmake would mean that FDO users use solution/project files
for Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 at the end.

>> However, if we are going to migrate to VS2008 project files, then I
>>  do think we at least need to ensure that FDO is easily built with 
>> VS2008 Express.  I'll take an action item (though I may need 
>> reminding) to confirm and try to help with any VS2008 Express
>> issues once the project file migration is complete.
> 
> [GB] As a part of the upgrade to VS 2008, we will ensure that all of 
> FDO builds on Visual Studio Express 2008.

Yes, that's important. Otherwise it could be hard to keep
working on FDO :-)

>> I will say that the RFC does not seem to provide a strong
>> motivation for the migration.  VS2008 can load VS2005 project
>> files, right?  I'm assuming the issue is that if virtually everyone
>> is using VS2008 then it is hard to update the project files because
>> VS2008 doesn't write VS2005 project files.  Is that the situation?
> 
> [GB] We have also analyzed the difference between VS 2005 and 2008 
> project files and we feel we may be able to write a script that 
> generates 2005 project files from their 2008 counterparts. The 
> difference seems slight. If there is a strong demand for 2005 support
>  from our users, them this may be a possible solution going forward.

I would not call it a strong demant, but personally I would be happy if
I was able to still use VS 2005 Though, considering that I'm not able to
help in this scripting work, I give my wishes low priority.

Greetings
-- 
Mateusz Loskot
http://mateusz.loskot.net