Visual D in Visual Studio 2013 on Win 8.1 with DMD x64 Linker Problem Solved

[Tyler Jensen]

On Monday, 18 November 2013 at 07:45:31 UTC, Rainer Schuetze 
wrote:
> Thanks for the report.
>
> On 18.11.2013 00:41, Tyler Jensen wrote:
>> Question and answer in one. I found the answer to my question 
>> not long
>> after composing the question. Posted here for others who are 
>> on the
>> bleeding OS edge as well.
>>
>> My environment:
>>   Running Windows 8.1.
>>   Visual Studio 2013 Premium installed.
>>   Install Visual D with VisualD-v0.3.37.exe.
>>
>> Create new D console app DMD/GDC.
>>
>> Switch solution config to "Debug DMD|x64"
>>
>> Hit F6 to build and get the following:
>>
>> ------ Build started: Project: ConsoleApp1, Configuration: 
>> Debug DMD x64
>> ------
>> Building Debug DMD x64\ConsoleApp1.exe...
>> LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'user32.lib'
>> Building Debug DMD x64\ConsoleApp1.exe failed!
>> ------
>>
>> How to fix this? That is the question.
>>
>> Partial answer found in known issues page:
>> http://rainers.github.io/visuald/visuald/KnownIssues.html
>>
>
> This is a bit out of date, it should not be necessary anymore 
> with newer versions of Visual D.

I'm using the latest release of Visual D 0.3.37. (I just checked 
for a new release but that seems to be the most recent.)

>
>> That fix did not work but it led to trying this change to 
>> sc.ini (only
>> showing changed lines):
>>
>> ; environment for both 32/64 bit
>> [Environment]
>> LIB="%@P%\..\lib";\dm\lib;"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
>> Kits\8.0\Lib\win8\um\x86";%DMD_LIB%
>> ; original LIB="%@P%\..\lib"
>>
>> [Environment32]
>> ; original LIB="%@P%\..\lib"
>> LIB="%@P%\..\lib";\dm\lib;"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
>> Kits\8.0\Lib\win8\um\x86";%DMD_LIB%
>
> You should not pass the path to COFF libraries in the SDK to 
> the Win32 linker, it only understands libraries in OMF format 
> (coffimplib needed to convert the libraries).
>
>>
>> [Environment64]
>> ; original LIB="%@P%\..\lib64"
>> LIB="%@P%\..\lib64";\dm\lib;"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
>> Kits\8.0\Lib\win8\um\x64";%DMD_LIB%
>
> What version of DMD are you using? DMD 2.064 was tweaked to 
> have the path to the SDK libraries in sc.ini. Unfortunately it 
> is not working with the Windows SDK 8.1, as Microsoft changed 
> the SDK layout again.

I had downloaded and installed dmd-2.064.2 which appears to be 
the latest.

>
> Visual D also allows setting additional library paths in the 
> Tools->Options->Project and Solution->Visual D Settings->DMD 
> Directories->x64 page.

I did try to use these settings but never had any success in 
getting it to work. I'm really a newb here, so if you have 
recommendations for a better solution, I'm eager to try it.