[vtkusers] [vtk-developers] Can we drop Visual Studio 6 support?

[David Thompson]

> I also have an argument for keeping VS60 support:
> 
> Usually, developers break VS60 because it is on the continuous
> dashboard and it has tcl and python wrapper turned on. Sometimes the
> BCC on the
> continuous does not gives error because it does not have tcl and
> python wrappers on but nightly builds of BCC are then usually broken.
> Same for SunOS CC.

Adding a continuous build that has wrapping turned on seems an easy fix
that doesn't require MSVC6.

> Besides the big red dahsboard few weeks ago with the unicode features,
> there is no VS60 specific break. The last few days dashboard errors
> were on most platforms.

There is more than just compiling cleanly. We have had many problems
where code compiles but tests run incorrectly (and, yes, only on VC6
builds).

	David

> (I make this remark is just in case Berk started ask the question
> because of the current VTK dashboard state).
> 
> 
> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Francois Bertel
> <francois.bertel at kitware.com> wrote:
> > An argument in favor of stopping VS6 support:
> >
> > Even Microsoft stopped to support it officially. Microsoft stopped
> > "mainstream support" on 9/30/2004 and "extended support" on
> > 9/30/2005.
> > ref: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3003
> >
> >
> > A little remark (not an argument): VS60 is the last version to run on
> > the Windows 9x platform ( but who is still using Windows 9x in 2009
> > anyway?):
> > ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio#Visual_Studio_6.0
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 1:56 PM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Berk,
> >>
> >> What sort of maintenance issues are you having?
> >>
> >> Are there other compilers the developers don't use? Visual Studio 7? Borland?
> >>
> >> I think the real issue is what compilers do the VTK installed base
> >> use? You may have customers that are using 3rd party drivers/libraries
> >> that are VS6. Actually, there is no way to know who the customers are.
> >>
> >> Bill
> >>
> >> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Berk Geveci <berk.geveci at kitware.com> wrote:
> >>> Hi folks,
> >>>
> >>> We are thinking of dropping support for Visual Studio 6. It is causing
> >>> annoying maintenance issues since no one in the developer team uses it
> >>> and since VS 6 supports only a subset of modern C++ features. Are
> >>> there any objects? If yes, I would like to know why.
> >>>
> >>> Best,
> >>> -berk
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> >
> >
> > --
> > François Bertel, PhD  | Kitware Inc. Suite 204
> > 1 (518) 371 3971 x113 | 28 Corporate Drive
> >                      | Clifton Park NY 12065, USA
> >
> 
> 
>