-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Viscarola [mailto:xxxxx@osr.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 3:33 PM
To: NT Developers Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] Re: Converting to XP build …
But either I misunderstand what this verison of your utility does, or
you’re
not hearing my argument: People CAN and SHOULD build within the IDE. I
think that’s a great idea. Never bring up a DDK command window. That’s
fine.
The utility indeed does what you suspect it does: it sets up a “solution”
file for use within .net. It can also generate a project file for VC6, and
that functionality has been there for a while.
But if you DO build within the IDE, you really DO need to build using
BUILD.EXE and the compiler, linker, and libraries shipped with the DDK –
and you must NOT the compiler, linker, and/or libraries shipped with VS
.NET.
Well, I can see the point, but hey, it’s the same compiler. We will tweak
the .net framework to use the ddk compiler, just give us a bit more time. On
the other hand, I find it a real bad idea to tie up something as broad as
driver development and implementation to specific versions of compilers and
linkers. When that happens, I feel like hanging the compiler, not the
toolmaker ! In an ideal world, I would refuse to ship anything that can’t be
compiled by at least two different compilers from two different vendors,
heck, that’s why we’re supposed to have standards and what not. My take on
this is, *do not* depend on a specific compiler version, that’s bad news.
You can do the right thing trivially, by using a command procedure invoked
from within VS as part of an “external build procedure.” And you still get
to build by clicking the little icon in VS IDE, and you still get every
single feature of the IDE, including browsing and all that.
This is true, and you can do that trivially too. But then, maybe we don’t
want to be limited to what build.exe can do ? After all, build.exe is just a
shell around nmake. At some point in time we may want to depart from this
old-fashioned C-xterm-dosbox model, eh ? Or I’ll never be able to ship my
drivers in bytecode. 
So: YES, by all means build from within the IDE. But, NO… PLEASE don’t
try to repro the settings that makefile.def uses in the IDE. Please just
run build.exe from within the IDE. This ensure that your driver will work,
AND you get to use the IDE.
That’s all I’m saying… I’m merely trying to help people avoid the
problems
that many of us have previously seen with using the wrong compiler/linker
combinations.
That driver will work, it goes without saying. We’ve been doing it for a
while now with VC6, no problems so far ! But I’ll give you, we’re not known
for being conservative. Watch this space, one of these days you may get to
see me writing a driver in C#. 
Alberto.
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