Re: [boost] Status of Visual Studio 2017 support

Subject: Re: [boost] Status of Visual Studio 2017 support
From: Andrew Pardoe (Andrew.Pardoe_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-02-16 15:03:19

[Olaf] Wouldn't it make sense to have one VS install, chosen by the user of course, be the default?

The problem is in locating that one VS install.

[Re: general discussion]
Visual Studio used to install onto a developer's machine like a dump truck of bricks being unloaded. The VS team made some design choices to help make VS install lighterweight, less impactful, and uninstallable. As a side-effect of that design, it's also able to be installed side-by-side. 

That last point causes some unintended consequences. Providing an API to query for VS installs and their components suffices for many scenarios. I, at least, did not anticipate your scenario: a developer should be able to clone and build a repo without first establishing that machine's developer environment. (Not that I was the one making the decisions about VS, but we can extrapolate from my lack of anticipation.)

There are a number of things I want to change about Visual Studio. This is especially true regarding how we set up developer environments. I find the vcvars* batch files to be unintelligible. But those things aren't going to change instantly. For now, I'm focusing on enabling your scenario.