DMD - Windows

[Manu]

On 6 January 2012 21:06, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:

> Yea, OMF is actually #1 PITA on Windows right now, unfortunately.
>
> The problem: On windows, DMD uses the Optlink linker. Optlink only supports
> OMF right now (OMF used to be commonly used by Borland, IIRC). Optlink was
> written entirely in asm so changing it is difficult. But Walter has been,
> piece-by-piece, porting it to C (and then he'll port it to D). (This is
> issue also happens to be the main thing blocking 64-bit on Windows.)
>

Lame. Surely Optlink is not the only linker in the world...?
I'm also surprised that someone capable of writing a compiler and optimiser
for a complex language isn't capable of writing a linker. The link must
surely be the simplest+easiest of those 3 jobs...?


> There are a few solutions right now (in no particular order):
>
> - Recompile the libs using DMC (the Digital Mars C/C++ compiler). That will
> result in an OMF lib file that can be used with DMD.
>

DMx has inferior code generation, not a chance :) .. And does DMC even
support all the features of the language? SSE? No support in D, why would
it work in DMC?


> - Link with Unilink instead of DMD/Optlink. Unilink can link both OMF and
> COFF together just fine. I don't have a link offhand, and it's a little
> funky to learn how to use since the docs aren't very good, but I'm sure
> someone here will chime in (or you can search the archives, I know comeone
> posted a good introduction to it not too long ago).
>

Why not use this instead of Optlink if it works?
I'll check it out... though VisualD doesn't support this.


> - Use the Digital Mars COFF2OMF tool to convert to lib to OMF.
> Unfortunately, the tool isn't free, but IIRC it's inexpensive.
>

Seriously... I just simply won't bother, and write my app in C instead ;)


> - Use LDC or GDC instead of DMD. I think those work with COFF.
>

VisualD doesn't support those compilers (yet).

- If the library comes in a DLL version, you can download the free IMPLIB
> tool and use it to generate an OMF import library directly from the DLL
> (it'll still actually link to the DLL at runtime).
>

I could probably build my engine as a DLL... I've been planning to do this
for a long time anyway.
Maybe this is the extra bit of motivation I need to do it ;)


> The IMPLIB and COFF2OMF tools are here:
> http://www.digitalmars.com/download/freecompiler.html  IMPLIB is in the
> free
> "Basic Utilities" package, and COFF2OMF is in the "Extended Utilities
> Package"
>
> If you feel this is all still a big pain in the ass: Don't worry, everyone
> here agrees with you, and the situation will not remain like this forever.
>

Indeed. The main reason for my post is just to complain, and add my voice ;)
I'd like to insist that this is basically unacceptable... it should be
prioritised.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.puremagic.com/pipermail/digitalmars-d/attachments/20120106/c300e411/attachment.html>