Re: [boost] Status of Visual Studio 2017 support

Subject: Re: [boost] Status of Visual Studio 2017 support
From: Bo Persson (bop_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-02-21 10:17:06

On 2017-02-21 03:47, Tom Kent via Boost wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 5:32 PM, degski via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]>
> wrote:
>
>> On 20 February 2017 at 16:33, Tom Kent via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I strongly diagree with that. The primary use case for windows developers
>>> with visual studio is as a user of the headers and .lib/.dll files that
>>> come out of boost, inside their project files (configured with a gui to
>> add
>>> include/library paths).
>>
>>
>>  You seem to imply that the above is different for developers not on
>> windows (other than the "gui" being bash and vim).
>>
>
>> Most users do not need boost build except for the
>>> step where they need to create the compatible static/dynamic libraries
>> that
>>> they will later use.
>>
>>
>> Isn't the above what everybody does with any library (build and link in
>> ones' projects).
>
>
> Visual studio has all the settings in the project file, so most developers
> don't have to set them themselves. I guess it is comparable to how a
> package manager will add libraries to a directory in the default library
> path on linux. The key here is that developers, even relatively decent
> ones, may not have a lot of the background that a typical linux user would
> have. Specifically, opening the command prompt and running a simple b2
> command is a lot to ask for even some moderate level windows developers
> (sadly).
>

Even if we know how to do it, we might not want to.

Usually on Windows you click on Setup.exe and get a list of options on 
what you can install. You can see what is available, and select the 
parts you want.

That is a lot easier, and more confortable, than reading some 
documentation to try to come up with an incantation like

b2 toolset=msvc-12.0,msvc-14.0

Some of us think that C:\> on a black background perhaps isn't the 
ultimate user experience.

        Bo Persson