Re: Non-msvc compilers and Microsoft Platform SDK updates

From: Reece Dunn (msclrhd_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-14 13:46:59

Andrey Melnikov wrote:
> Reece Dunn wrote:
> 
>>The Microsoft compiler provides its .lib files in COFF format, however the 
>>Borland compiler (at least with 5.5 and earlier) uses OMF, making it 
>>impossible to use the Microsoft Platform SDK with the Borland compiler! I am 
>>not sure about other Windows compilers, but I suspect that CodeWarrior and 
>>others are compatible. Also, I remember that Borland needs to have a 
>>modified winnt.h to get it to compile correctly. Again, I am not sure about 
>>other compilers.
> 
> I'd like to see more detailed comments from people who are using Borland 
> and other compilers. How do you handle Platform SDK updates? What do you 
> do if you need a Platform SDK that is newer than the verion shipped with 
> your compiler?

For non-MS compilers I have used the PSDK shipped with that compiler. I 
have only tried to support a new Platform SDK with the Borland compiler 
(prior to version 6.0/5.6) but ran into the problems described above.

Borland do provide a coff2omf tool, but I haven't tried it with the 
Platform SDK. So, I suspect to get the latest PSDK working with Borland 
you would need to:

* run coff2omf on the *.lib files you are interested in;
* patch winnt.h (or replace it with the Borland version);
* cross your fingers and hope for the best ;)

As I said, it's been a while since I tried this.

- Reece
Software Engineer/Sophos
www.sophos.com