Re: Old windows binaries on OF

[Mike Miller]

On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 07:36:14 +0100, Julien Bect wrote:
> Le 24/01/2017 à 00:40, Mike Miller a écrit :
> > On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 15:10:30 +0100, Julien Bect wrote:
> > > For instance, since the 1st of January, 1833 persons have downloaded 
> > > windows
> > > binaries for Octave 3.6.4, which is the latest available from SF.
> > It's very important to note here that this particular binary is the most
> > recent build of Octave that was made with the Microsoft Visual compiler.
> > I would venture to guess that most users downloading that particular
> > binary are doing so intentionally, not accidentally, because there
> > simply is no newer version available.
> 
> Why would people want that specifically ?

I believe the Visual compiler builds object code that is incompatible
with object code built by the standard GCC compiler. (I thought I had
added that, but maybe assumed it was well known.)

So possibly because they are building part of a larger project that
links with Octave and they either must or prefer to build their project
with the Visual compiler.

Or possibly because they are building mex or oct files that link with
external vendor libraries that are provided to them in object form,
compiled by the Visual compiler.

Or possibly because they simply like and are familiar with the Visual
compiler's IDE for editing files and would prefer to also compile and
run code for Octave in that environment, even if they technically
*could* use GCC.

IIRC Michael Goffioul was the one who previously undertook the effort to
build Octave using the Visual compiler and uploaded those binaries.

We have had several queries on the help list in the past year for either
a more recent build of Octave for Visual Studio, or for assistance or
instructions for building a recent version of Octave with Visual Studio,
neither of which exist. We have no active members of the community who
are working on this. I advised them to try to get it working if it is
important to them, and possibly collaborate with each other to get
something done, but I have no idea if anyone has succeeded.

-- 
mike