[mapserver-dev] What version of Microsoft Tools?

[Andreas Albarello]

On 19 Mar 2008, at 22:41, Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
>
>
>>  Microsoft does have a free compiler, Visual C++ Express
>> Edition (http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/) But I've
>> never tried it.  And I think you'll need to download the
>> Windows Platform SDK to do anything useful.
>
> OK, this is interesting. Has anyone compiled mapserver using this?  
> Can you provide details?

Steve,

Yes, I have done so. Actually, I use VC++ 2005 Express exclusively,  
and it has always worked a treat for everything. It comes with the  
fully functioning command line compiler of all the professional  
versions of VC++; just the IDE is somewhat crippled, but you are most  
likely going to use makefiles only, so you don't need that. Still, the  
IDE works fine for debugging of libraries and console applications,  
and the debugger is great. What's missing is mainly all the GUI stuff  
and such and all of the fancy wizards. OTOH, you'll need to build the  
IDE projects yourself (which you'll need in order to be able to use  
the debugger) as more often than not a makefile is all you'll find  
inside the source tarball.

Brent is right, you need to download the free Platform SDK (couple of  
100 megs) which contains all the headers and libraries (VC++ Express  
ships with a small subset only). By installing that, you get a .bat  
file (SetEnv.bat) inside %Program Files%\Microsoft Platform SDK which  
you can run from the compiling console (a standard console with the  
needed environment vars and paths) to add all the SDK paths to the  
compiler (something like "SetEnv.bat /XP32 /RETAIL" oder "/DEBUG", for  
that matter). Then you simply run "nmake /f makefile.vc" and you're  
all set.

Other than that, well, it's just as easy as compiling on Linux once  
you've set up everything. Downloading all dependant libraries (gd,  
gdal etc.), manually configuring all the corresponding makefiles and  
nmake opt files, etc. can be a lot of work needed to get you started,  
though.

HTH.

Best regards,
--
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Andreas Albarello
Analysis & SW Development

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