[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#9433) Patch: MSVC compile fixes

["Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa" <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=9433 >

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004, Per I. Mathisen wrote:

> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=9433 >
>
> On Tue, 20 Jul 2004, res wrote:
> > > Alloca is terrible. Dynamic array sizes are part of C99.  Are you sure
> > > MSVC doesn't support it?
> >
> > Arrays are indded nicer, but the manual says: "Microsoft® C conforms to
> > the standard for the C language as set forth in the 9899:1990 edition of
> > the ANSI C standard." No C99. (Note: I'm speaking about VC7.0. Newer
> > versions might have this support, but I don't know.)
>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/vstudio/vstudio_022703.asp:
> "In general, we have seen little demand for many C99 features. Some
> features have more demand than others, and we will consider them in future
> releases provided they are compatible with C++. It is more likely we'll
> entertain C99 features if they are picked up in the next version of the
> C++ standard."
>
> So MSVC is a C++ compiler that sometimes can compile older C code. IIRC,
> some new C99 features are not compatible with C++.

Who cares about MSVC? If you like closed source and Microsoft Visual
Studio, then get the Intel C++ compiler v8.0. That has C99 support.

I don't think we should be supporting broken compilers. So Microsoft
wants everyone to port to C# and is deprecating C/C++. Why should I care?

Especially when there are lots of working alternatives for the platform.
GCC 3.4 which is free, Intel C++ v8.0 which is the best performing compiler.

---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa