Firebird doesn't support MSVC 2015

[Lionel Elie Mamane]

On Sun, Mar 06, 2016 at 06:39:14PM +0100, David Ostrovsky wrote:
> On Fri, 2016-03-04 at 19:59 +0100, Lionel Elie Mamane wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 02, 2016 at 08:02:39AM +0100, David Ostrovsky wrote:

>>> "I tried to compile fb with MSVC2015.  After fixing macro issues,
>>> you'll see more errors and more serious.  The list of errors is
>>> almost endless. (Of course no, but it's huge.)  There will be
>>> errors that can change the runtime behaviour. So, it's better to
>>> coordinate your efforts with FB devs and not do all yourself."


>> Would a "headlong rush" makes things better? That is, Firebird 3.0
>> has its Release Candidate 2 out now. So we could start using it,
>> and make it non-experimental only with their 3.0 final or something
>> like that?  If it support MSVC2015, maybe even has a fixed build
>> system, then "things get better".

> AFAICT upcoming Firebird 3.0 doesn't support MSVC 2015. Moreover,
> following the discussion on FB developer mailing list, in this thread:
> [1], it turns out, that MSVC 2013 was selected to be used for the next
> FB 4 release, (...)

That discussion is a bit confused between:

1) What will be used to compile the binaries on http://www.firebirdsql.org/

2) What compiler or compiler*s* is/are supported and tested.

If 1) is MSVC2013 but 2) includes MSVC2015 (with developers regularly
using MSVC2015) then I wouldn't be that worried. Although some people
in that thread make that same point, I don't know of they are [core]
developers or outsiders, which would make a difference in the
impression it makes of the recognition by "the project" of these
issues.

IMHO 1) can even be switched between 4.0.5 and 4.0.6 or something like
that :) When Windows XP is "truly dead", even in the corners of
Northern Eurasia :)

Worrying indeed.

> (...) it could be problematic to not being able to upgrade the tool
> chain on Windows for the next 10 years.

We could switch to not linking Firebird "in-house" but "just" bundling
it? The same way our predecessor project used to bundle Java (and
maybe other things)?

Would that seem workable to you guys? Assuming Firebird survives the
fact that Windows 18 will needs binaries compiled with MSVC 2030 or
something like that ;)

-- 
Lionel