Re: [Boost-users] Boost compile fails on Visual C++ 6, warnings on VS8

From: Gennaro Prota (gennaro_prota_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-07-06 09:06:45

On Wed, 5 Jul 2006 09:31:29 +0200, "Sagnes, Frederic"
<frederic.sagnes_at_[hidden]> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I'm using the Boost libraries for my project (archive, threads, program_options, date_time) and these are really helpful, saved me a lot of time and the great designs make them easy to use. I'm compiling my project with Visual Studio 2005 (8.0) and gcc 4.0.1. Both work quite well, I only have warnings on VS8 because it seems to render integer operation in 64 bit and no cast is being done (a static cast would fix this), some deprecation warning which are normal, and the GCC build works well.
>
>But the VC++ 6 compilation is a real pain, here is the command line for BJam:
>bjam "-sTOOLS=msvc" "-sMSVC_ROOT=C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98" "-sVISUALC=C:\Programme\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98" --prefix=D:\ALM\Boost\msvc install
>
>I get a lot of compilation errors, including internal compiler errors which are quite alarming. I thought Boost libraries were meant to be portable and compile on VS6. The archive library for instance fails to build.
>
>Is there a workaround to build Boost libraries on VS6? Did I miss a switch or setting? Is VS6 that bad that it can't render complex but standard C++ code? Where can I check with which compiler Boost libraries are compatible?

Hi Frederic, the one place to look for are regression test logs for
your boost version. For the latest release they are linked to from the
main page (upper right box, just above the search edit: "Regression
Tests" column). Following the release link from there, I see many
expected failure/unusable tags for VC6.

Yes, VC6 is really bad. When it was the latest C++ compiler by
Microsoft library authors were more willing to spend time (read:
years) to find out the necessary somersaults that made it work (or
almost work). Now that 7.1 and 8.0 are out, and the latter has a
*free* Express Edition, authors care less about it. In general,
there's no obligation on library authors to support non-conforming
compilers, though we usually do our best to support the most widely
used.

--
[ Gennaro Prota, C++ developer for hire ]
[    resume:  available on request      ]