Re: atk compiled using msvc6

[Tor Lillqvist <tml iki fi>]

> You can actually use Microsoft build toolchain for free. See here:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/
> It lacks IDE, but command line power is all yours. 

Yes, but as has been discussed before on this list (and lots of other
places; google for it), that isn't really a complete development
environment. (And I don't mean just that it lacks an IDE.) You will
also need the Platform SDK for Win32 API headers and import
libraries. You won't get any (n)make.

Plus, that is MSVC7, which as has been mentioned just some days ago in
this very thread, produces executables that use the msvcr71.dll (or
msvcr70.dll?) C runtime. My prebuilt GLib, GTK etc uses the msvcrt.dll
runtime. So do the distributions of all dependencies (freetype, jpeg,
libtiff, libpng, etc). This might well cause very odd bugs. (Google
for msvcrt and msvcr71; you will notice several people who definitely
seem to know what they talk about agree with me.)

There is also the issue of whether distributing LGPL or GPL binaries
that are linked to msvcr7*.dll is allowed in the license or
not. msvcrt.dll is part of the operating system (since Win95 OSR2),
but msvcr7*.dll comes with the compiler. It is redistributable, but I
am not a lawyer, and I am not going to give any advice whether
bundling msvcr7*.dll with (L)GPL software is allowed in its EULA, or
the (L)GPL. 

For instance Bruno Haible (the maintainer of GNU gettext and libiconv)
stopped distributing his Win32 binaries precisely for this reason. See
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/2004-01/msg00058.html
(The gettext and libiconv binaries I distribute use msvcrt.)

Please analyze and understand all these issues before starting to use
the "free" Visual C Toolkit 2003. Personally, I'll stick with gcc and
msvcrt, at least for the foreseeable future (i.e., half a year or so).

--tml