VS2003 toolkit gone?

Pardon me if this seems newb-ish:

I looked at your build-instructions under windows, and noticed you use the Visual C++ Toolkit 2003.

I then decided to go to Microsoft’s webpage to download it (I know I had done it in the past, but uninstalled it after I got 2005 standard)

Upon finding the page for it at Microsoft, it said that the 2003 toolkit has been replaced by 2005 express!

I know that people on this forum have been trying to build under 2005, but I haven’t seen anyone declare it a complete success yet.

Is there a way for me to build it under windows currently, or do I have to join the good fight in trying to get Panda to build under 2005?

Oy, I’d forgotten all about this.

OK, I’ve got a plan. I use vmware for most of my build process. I’m creating a virtual machine and I’m going to install visual toolkit 2005 on it. From there, I can port panda to visual toolkit 2005.

• Josh

Thanks, I shall patiently wait for your results.

That’s great news Josh! Since Microsoft actually gives you a GUI IDE free with the compiler this time

OK, I tried building under MSVC8, and I’m having all the same problems that the others had. The real source of the trouble is that libs compiled with MSVC7 aren’t compatible with MSVC8. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can find MSVC8 versions of all the thirdparty libraries. So this has to go on the back burner.

I went through this with the Cipher engine a while back. I had to recompile everything (all 3rd part libraries) again.

Thanks for making the attempt at least.

Steve

Well, I think that answers my question for now.

I suppose if I wanted to build panda at this moment, it might be easier to install linux on my test machine… as I’m fairly familiar with that, and the build-system seems to require less extra effort there.

I won’t stop looking at MSVC8, but, those 3rd party libs may be a problem, I’ll have to see what I can find out too.

Actually, I’ve changed my mind. I’m still trying to get it to compile with MSVC8. I may eventually get it working.

Just so you know - compiling panda under MSVC8 produces a successful compile (for me), but attempting to run the executables yields a crash for unknown reasons. No time to debug right now.

Are there any news on the VC 2005 problem? In other words, does it make any sense trying to build with VC 2005?

Cheers,
Max Hajek

No, it does not make sense. Since Python extensions need to be compiled with the same version as Python itself - and Panda3D’s Python is compiled with MSVC7.1 (2003 toolkit).
At least, that is what I know from the Python extension world.

Actually it is possible to build Python 2.4 extensions with VC 2005. But you have to be very very careful, since VC 2005 links your extension against msvcr80.dll while Python 2.4 is built using msvcr71.dll. Passing CRT resources between the two CRTs is likely to crash your program.

Also you can use MinGW to build Python 2.4 extensions.

Mixing CRT versions is a guaranteed way to create random, unexplainable crashes in your program.

You can still find the toolkit in some places… ed2k://|file|VCToolkitSetup.exe|3295248 … EHV6A2CF|/

Well, building python with the installed compiler/linker could be just part of the build process of Panda. This would guarantee that the two match.

Cheers,
Max Hajek
Vienna, Austra

Very true, but that means that if you want to use any Python extension, you also have to recompile those extensions. It will take a lot of effort.

Well, Python extension other than those distributed with Panda would require a rebuild, true. But it seems this would be of lesser incidence. In any case, ideally the build system for Panda would allow you to specify extra extensions to be built with it. (Maybe it does already and I’m not aware of that. But even if not, it does already dynamically add building for all kinds of stuff, so allowing python extensions to be built along the way shouldn’t be a big deal.)
Or do I miss anything?

Cheers,
Max Hajek
Vienna, Austra