[ros-dev] MSVC 2003 added some gcc compatibility, MS considers OSS compatibility

[Drew Scott Daniels]

On Thu, Apr 26, 2007 at 06:24:51PM +1000, Peter Dolding wrote:
> Alex Ionescu wrote:
[...]
> > 2) Pragma support: GCC doesn't view msvc-compatibility as a priority.
> >  
I'd like to know more about which pragma's, and more details about the
other potential incompatibilities. I have several large code bases I may
be porting soon.

[...]
> Ok why.  Microsoft does not take Gcc compatibility as a priority.  MSVC 
> does not support gcc Pragma's either.  But gcc is being good and 
> supporting _pragma from C99 allowing more flexable handling.

I understand you saying gcc compatibility probably isn't a priority. I'd
like to note that it is considered.

At the Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 2003 launch in Winnipeg, there was a
reference to a new inheritance feature that gcc had for a while. This
was said to be important at least partially because it allowed more gcc
code to compile.

Although it's likely not a high general priority, some gcc 
compatibility is a priority as many customers and internal developers 
use gcc code. Microsoft considers migration from unix to be at least 
somewhat important, probably particularly to certain customers/contracts.

[...]
> Gcc is not alone with Vista Bugs.  Firefox had about 100 regarding 
> vista..  Microsoft worked on fixing them.  Funny bit Microsoft 
> developers are working on fixing some of the Vista bugs in gcc.
> 
I'm not entirely surprised. I recall hearing about NAPI or alike. If 
you look, you'll find MS using open source tools like perl in the 
windbg symbol server, chkinf... I've run into others that I don't 
recall offhand.

Microsoft has even hired many Open Source developers including Daniel
Robinson of Gentoo fame. They even seem to have Open Source
compatibility lab(s) that are reported from time to time.

There is a bit of "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is
doing". But I would imagine most MSVC developers would be willing to
accommodate gcc compatibility requests. Also large open source projects
probably provide a good application compatibility testbed. Some work on
open source products may save future compatibility support requests too.

     Drew Daniels
Resume: http://www.boxheap.net/ddaniels/resume.html