On Monday, 23 December 2013 at 21:43:35 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
On 12/23/2013 12:50 PM, Stephen Jones wrote:
Isn't the point that Microsoft have just illustrated that they
intend tightening
their grip over the development tools, in which case the
future viability of D
as open source is jeopardized; if you want to program D you
will have to obtain
some Microsoft license to access the linker required to use
Windows 64 bit SDK.
As for being able to generate D programs with just the Windows
SDK, I was lead
to understand D programming on 64 bit Windows platforms
requires Visual C++
linker and this linker can only be got by obtaining a Visual
Studio, and that
the last Enterprise and truly free version of Studio is 2010
which presumably
will not keep pace with future Windows developments (I might
be wrong on this,
if for example the linker remains the same irrespective of
changes in the SDK).
I'm not worried about it. I've had a license from Microsoft for
13 years now to redistribute some of their stuff with the free
and paid versions of Digital Mars C++, and their assistance to
my efforts goes back over 20 years. They've always been very
supportive of what I needed to keep Digital Mars dev tools
available.
Microsoft understands that by supporting Windows dev tools,
even if they aren't Microsoft dev tools, they are supporting
Windows sales and they care a great deal about that.
I'll also add that I've dealt with many Microsoft people over
the years, and without exception they've been very nice and
easy to do business with.
I understand that there is demand for a 64 bit D that has
nothing to do with VS, and I expect gdc and ldc to fill that
demand. There is also a considerable demand for a 64 bit D that
integrates with VS, and that is what dmd for 64 bits is
targeted at.
Thank you Walter. That is assuring.