[Nel] 3DSMax 4.2 + STLport 4.5 support

[Vincent Caron]

Hello,

  This is a rather lengthy patchset, the target is : VC7 build + 3DSMax 
4.2 support + STLport 4.5. I have split this up in several parts with 
some comments. The patches try to be conservative, ie. they should not 
break the Max3.1 + STLport 4.1 build.


VC7 build
---------

My IDE being VC.NET, I only worked on the .sln and .vcproj files. 
Besides little tweakings, I modified the output paths of the .dll, .dlu 
and .dlm files. In order to avoid hardcoded paths 'C:\3dsmax3_1\...' in 
the build files, I used the following scheme :

 - all shared binaries goes in code/nel/lib7/ (like NeL regular libs 
and DLLs), here's the manifest :

  nel_3dsmax_shared<suffix>.dll
  nelconvertpatch.dml
  nelexport.dlu
  nelpaintpatch.dlm
  neltileutility.dlu
  object_viewer<suffix>.dll

 - 3DSMax has a 'plugin.ini' that let you add your own plugin path, 
mine looks like :

  [Directories]
  Standard MAX plug-ins=C:\3dsmax42\StdPlugs
  Additional MAX plug-ins=C:\3dsmax42\plugins
  NeL plug-ins=D:\src\nel\code\nel\lib7

 - Note that I added the very same lib7 path to my PATH global 
environment variable, in order that any NeL app/plugin links properly 
from a single DLL repository (thus I removed the postbuild rules which 
were copying files around at fixed places in C:\3dsmax3_1). This is very 
handy, and MS-portable :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dllproc/dll_2jqf.asp

 - I also removed per-projet (.vcproj) MAXSDK include and lib paths, 
the documentation suggests those being set in the global VC paths, which 
is a good idea. I also solved the 'include order/minmax' compilation pb, 
see next section.

 - I provide a 'compilation_notes_vc7.txt' which describes the whole 
build setup using VC7 and the conventions I briefly sum up here.

Of course, it won't interfere with the VC6 build.


MaxSDK vs. STL conflict
-----------------------

<Max.h> includes <windows.h> which defines the 'min' and 'max' macros, 
and they interfere with std::min and std::max. I needed a way to 
workaround this pb without modifying MaxSDK's code, since submitting a 
patch now to Discreet would hardly benefit to users in less than a year :)

I can't use the NOMINMAX macro (if defined before including <windows.h>) 
which prevent the spurious macros to be defined. Sadly, <box2.h> uses 
two occurences of the 'min' macro. The solution was to add this blurb in 
 NeL once per Max-depedent lib, after the Max includes, but before the 
NeL includes :

#ifdef min
#undef min
#endif
#ifdef max
#undef max
#endif

In all cases but one (nel_patch_converter), this has been done in 
"stdAfx.h". This shouldn't affect the Max 3.1 build, while it will 
bulletproof other MaxSDK builds.


Unsupported STL code
--------------------

Snippet from nel_patch_lib/path_mesh_alloc:

  typedef std::list< std::auto_ptr<CArrayElement<T> > > ListArray;

The remarks :

 - an auto_ptr<> can't be a container (you don't own its scope)
 - auto_ptr has been removed from the STL specs :)

I removed the auto_ptr<>, a provided a simple destructor that does the 
cleanup. This should be functionnaly equivalent (the allocated vectors 
can't be released sooner IMHO), while being correct code.


Template specialisation
-----------------------

Don't put template specialisation implementation in .cpp. While it seems 
a good idea, it's actually forbidden by Mr Stroustrup, and VC6 
erroneously supports it (VC7 don't). The last time I encountered this 
kind of code under MSVC6, the code in the .cpp was simply blatantly 
ingored. Depends on the link stage actually.

I have corrected the CEditableRange<T> in object_viewer and its 
derivative classes, ie. moved the code in the .cpp and replaced forward 
declarations by includes of the templates. This is portable and C++-ly 
correct.


Patchset
--------

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/nel/template_specialisation.patch
    Updates object_viewer/CEditableRange<T> users.

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/nel/minmax_vs_stl.patch
    Resolve min/max macros vs. std:: counterparts conflict

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/nel/autoptr.patch
    Removed auto_ptr<> usage where it's forbidden

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/nel/object_viewer_dll_name.patch
    Seems that the DLL naming convention applied was half applied here

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/nel/patch_lib_rpo.patch
    Adds mandatory methods from MaxSDK 4.2 (4.x?) when subclassing

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/nel/maxplugin_files.zip
    New files:
      .vcproj collection
      VC7 build documentation


--

To apply the patches from a Windows box, here is a Win32 native port of 
GNU patch :

  http://zerodeux.net/misc/patch.exe  (59 KB)

To apply them, use the 'code' module root :

  $ cd code
  $ patch -p0 < patchfile.patch

Thanks !