[cmake-developers] [MODERN] CMake 3.3 vs Qt 5.5 vs MSVC2015

[James Johnston]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nils Gladitz [mailto:nilsgladitz at gmail.com]
> 
> On 23.07.2015 17:24, James Johnston wrote:
> > That sounds horrible - asking a user to manually run Windows Update.
> > But Windows Update packages don't have to be installed ONLY by way of
> > visiting Windows Update manually.
> 
> But this will only be an issue for users which don't run windows >= 10 or
> which don't run regular updates (I'd have assumed this comes in through
> automated updates as well unless disabled?).

Depends on if it is an "important" update or an "optional" update...

Or it may not show at all.  E.g. the legacy WinHelp MSU package is not
pushed via Windows Update at all, but if you want WinHelp, it's installed
via a manually-downloaded MSU package that you have to get from
Microsoft.com downloads.

I'm curious to find out which method they choose...

> I rather think it is nice that this is considered an operating system
component
> rather than a visual studio version specific runtime component (e.g.
reduced
> application installer sizes and centralized updates) but this might work
best if
> you also treat it as such (unless you specifically have to target e.g.
> outdated/unnetworked machines).

To me, this is the worst of both worlds.  Not only do we STILL have to
distribute the version-specific components (which are not part of the
universal CRT) as we always have since VS2005, we now have this MSU package
IN ADDITION that has to be installed for every configuration except static
runtime linking.

You still have the burden of redistributing the rest of the "unstable"
VS2015-specific runtime.  So it's not like you can wait 10 years for
adoption and stop worrying about any VS2015 redistributing runtime files at
all.

Bonus points if they find a way in Visual Studio 2020 to modify the
universal CRT and somehow cause breaking changes with VS2015, even though
they promised not to...  This was supposedly why the VS2005 CRT & newer are
side-by-side installed into winsxs - to fix "DLL hell" from the 1990s...

James