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digitalmars.D - Updating Windows SDK static libraries of the DMD distribution

reply =?UTF-8?Q?S=c3=b6nke_Ludwig?= <sludwig+d outerproduct.org> writes:
It's a quite frequent issue to get unresolved externals on Windows, 
because the lib files of the Windows platform SDK are still stuck at 
Windows XP age. It would make a lot of sense to update those to the 
latest Windows 10 SDK, but I couldn't find a place where those are 
present physically, except for the release archives.

Does anyone know where those are stored or has the means to update them? 
Martin?
Feb 14 2017
next sibling parent reply kinke <noone nowhere.com> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 February 2017 at 14:11:31 UTC, Sönke Ludwig wrote:

 It's a quite frequent issue to get unresolved externals on 
 Windows, because the lib files of the Windows platform SDK are 
 still stuck at Windows XP age. It would make a lot of sense to 
 update those to the latest Windows 10 SDK, but I couldn't find 
 a place where those are present physically, except for the 
 release archives.

 Does anyone know where those are stored or has the means to 
 update them? Martin?


My 2 cents: (serious) Windows devs should install their own 
Visual C++ (linker + C runtime) & WinSDK and use DMD with 
`-m32mscoff` or `-m64` (to use MS linker instead of OptLink). The 
Win10 SDK doesn't support XP afaik and so may not be suited for 
all users; there's no 'one fits them all'.
I don't see a big future for OptLink and the bundled libs; it's 
only convenient for beginners so that they don't need the MS 
stuff and can get started with the DMD redistributable alone. The 
other DMD redistributables don't ship with a linker and system 
libs either (and you don't need a full-fledged Visual Studio 
installation anymore). And once everybody finally switches to 
64-bit, OptLink is dead anyway.
Feb 14 2017
parent reply Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Tuesday, February 14, 2017 17:15:59 kinke via Digitalmars-d wrote:

 On Tuesday, 14 February 2017 at 14:11:31 UTC, Sönke Ludwig wrote:

 It's a quite frequent issue to get unresolved externals on
 Windows, because the lib files of the Windows platform SDK are
 still stuck at Windows XP age. It would make a lot of sense to
 update those to the latest Windows 10 SDK, but I couldn't find
 a place where those are present physically, except for the
 release archives.

 Does anyone know where those are stored or has the means to
 update them? Martin?


 My 2 cents: (serious) Windows devs should install their own
 Visual C++ (linker + C runtime) & WinSDK and use DMD with
 `-m32mscoff` or `-m64` (to use MS linker instead of OptLink). The
 Win10 SDK doesn't support XP afaik and so may not be suited for
 all users; there's no 'one fits them all'.


I would point out that we technically don't support Windows XP. If you use D
with it, and it works for you, great, but you're on your own.

That being said, I don't know enough about the Windows SDK to have any clue
what we should do with it. If it actually requires Windows 10 to use the
Win10 SDK, then I don't see how we could include it by default, since we do
support Windows 7 (and most folks I know who use Windows refuse to upgrade
beyond 7 until they have to, though there are obviously plenty of folks out
there on 8 or 10).

- Jonathan M Davis
Feb 14 2017
parent reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 February 2017 at 20:14:32 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
wrote:


 I would point out that we technically don't support Windows XP. 
 If you use D with it, and it works for you, great, but you're 
 on your own.


Which is why the OMF libs need to be updated. They're ancient!


 That being said, I don't know enough about the Windows SDK to 
 have any clue what we should do with it. If it actually 
 requires Windows 10 to use the Win10 SDK, then I don't see how 
 we could include it by default, since we do support Windows 7 
 (and most folks I know who use Windows refuse to upgrade beyond 
 7 until they have to, though there are obviously plenty of 
 folks out there on 8 or 10).


It should be fine to just update the libraries to the Win 7 SDK 
versions. Anyone who actually needs any newer API functions can 
either use the MS linker or do what we already have to do with 
the OMF libs and either manually load them via the LoadLibrary 
API or generate their own.

Though, I do recall a discussion on this quite a while ago. I 
can't remember how it ended.
Feb 14 2017
parent =?UTF-8?Q?S=c3=b6nke_Ludwig?= <sludwig+d outerproduct.org> writes:
Am 15.02.2017 um 07:43 schrieb Mike Parker:

 On Tuesday, 14 February 2017 at 20:14:32 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:


 I would point out that we technically don't support Windows XP. If you
 use D with it, and it works for you, great, but you're on your own.


 Which is why the OMF libs need to be updated. They're ancient!


 That being said, I don't know enough about the Windows SDK to have any
 clue what we should do with it. If it actually requires Windows 10 to
 use the Win10 SDK, then I don't see how we could include it by
 default, since we do support Windows 7 (and most folks I know who use
 Windows refuse to upgrade beyond 7 until they have to, though there
 are obviously plenty of folks out there on 8 or 10).


 It should be fine to just update the libraries to the Win 7 SDK
 versions. Anyone who actually needs any newer API functions can either
 use the MS linker or do what we already have to do with the OMF libs and
 either manually load them via the LoadLibrary API or generate their own.

 Though, I do recall a discussion on this quite a while ago. I can't
 remember how it ended.


Although the Windows 10 import libraries should work fine for a Windows 
7 application, too. At least the 8.1 SDK guarantees backwards 
compatibility down to Windows 7. The 10 SDK has some breaking changes in 
the runtime, but that AFAIK doesn't affect the WinAPI import libraries.
Feb 15 2017
prev sibling parent Seb <seb wilzba.ch> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 February 2017 at 14:11:31 UTC, Sönke Ludwig wrote:

 It's a quite frequent issue to get unresolved externals on 
 Windows, because the lib files of the Windows platform SDK are 
 still stuck at Windows XP age. It would make a lot of sense to 
 update those to the latest Windows 10 SDK, but I couldn't find 
 a place where those are present physically, except for the 
 release archives.

 Does anyone know where those are stored or has the means to 
 update them? Martin?


You should ping Martin directly via email - I am not sure whether 
he regularly checks the general NG.
Feb 15 2017