Hey all,

While browsing the other day I stumbled across a linker called polink (part of the Pelles C suite). After only a few tries I got a working 64bit Hello World executable to be produced using it. The terms of service is incredibly permissive, and it looks like we can use it how ever we want (though this would need confirmation). I'm wondering if this could be a possible replacement for needing to install Visual Studio along side the D compiler.

Thoughts?

On Mon, 20 Apr 2015 04:05:19 +0000, Jeremiah DeHaan wrote:

> Hey all,
> 
> While browsing the other day I stumbled across a linker called polink (part of the Pelles C suite). After only a few tries I got a working 64bit Hello World executable to be produced using it. The terms of service is incredibly permissive, and it looks like we can use it how ever we want (though this would need confirmation). I'm wondering if this could be a possible replacement for needing to install Visual Studio along side the D compiler.
> 
> Thoughts?

i think that even if it can't be distributed with DMD, it would be great to write about it in Wiki, so we can direct people there.

On Monday, 20 April 2015 at 04:05:21 UTC, Jeremiah DeHaan wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> While browsing the other day I stumbled across a linker called polink (part of the Pelles C suite). After only a few tries I got a working 64bit Hello World executable to be produced using it. The terms of service is incredibly permissive, and it looks like we can use it how ever we want (though this would need confirmation). I'm wondering if this could be a possible replacement for needing to install Visual Studio along side the D compiler.
>
> Thoughts?

There are three aspects of Visual Studio used for D's Win64 support: the Microsoft C compiler to compile a few C files in COFF64 format, the Microsoft COFF64 linker, and the Microsoft C library in COFF64 format.  Replacing only one will not get you very far.

On Monday, 20 April 2015 at 04:32:32 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> There are three aspects of Visual Studio used for D's Win64 support: the Microsoft C compiler to compile a few C files in COFF64 format, the Microsoft COFF64 linker, and the Microsoft C library in COFF64 format.  Replacing only one will not get you very far.

As ifor the C compiler, wth DDMD around the corner that seems like it well be a non issue very soon. Really, all we would need are the linker and the libraries, right? I could still do more fiddling, but when I used this linker I used the library files that came with it almost exclusively. There was only one that I needed to add, and I'm sure that it can be figured out.

I just really like the idea of a self contained D compiler set up that doesn't need any other downloads to get working.

On Monday, 20 April 2015 at 16:39:38 UTC, Jeremy DeHaan wrote:
> As ifor the C compiler, wth DDMD around the corner that seems like it well be a non issue very soon. Really, all we would need are the linker and the libraries, right? I could still do more fiddling, but when I used this linker I used the library files that came with it almost exclusively. There was only one that I needed to add, and I'm sure that it can be figured out.
>
> I just really like the idea of a self contained D compiler set up that doesn't need any other downloads to get working.

The C compiler isn't to compile dmd, but some C files that are necessary for druntime and phobos.  btw, DDMD only translates the frontend to D, the dmd backend is still C++.  Not that it matters, as we're only talking about what's necessary from Visual Studio, and you don't need Visual Studio to compile dmd for Win64.

If your alternate toolchain comes with its own C library, then it's much closer to a possible replacement.  All you're missing is a C compiler that will compile to COFF64 then.

On Monday, 20 April 2015 at 16:47:53 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> The C compiler isn't to compile dmd, but some C files that are necessary for druntime and phobos.  btw, DDMD only translates the frontend to D, the dmd backend is still C++.  Not that it matters, as we're only talking about what's necessary from Visual Studio, and you don't need Visual Studio to compile dmd for Win64.
>
> If your alternate toolchain comes with its own C library, then it's much closer to a possible replacement.  All you're missing is a C compiler that will compile to COFF64 then.

Oh, huh. For some reason I thought that DMD was doing its own
code generation and only needed a linker for putting it all
together. I didn't know that it needed another compiler to work.
It looks like I have more to learn about the D compiler.

The toolchain I am suggesting does include a C compiler that
works for both 32 and 64 bit MSCOFF, so it sounds like it could
be feasible, but whether it is worth it or not is a different
story.

On Mon, 20 Apr 2015 18:26:15 +0000, Jeremiah DeHaan wrote:

> Oh, huh. For some reason I thought that DMD was doing its own code generation

it does. but to compile DMD itself, even in DDMD form, you still need C++ compiler, as codegen part is still in C++ and will not be translated to D.

so DDMD is a chimera with top part in D and bottom part in C++. ;-)

On Monday, 20 April 2015 at 18:26:16 UTC, Jeremiah DeHaan wrote:
> Oh, huh. For some reason I thought that DMD was doing its own
> code generation and only needed a linker for putting it all
> together. I didn't know that it needed another compiler to work.
> It looks like I have more to learn about the D compiler.

DMD does do all its own code generation, the C compiler is only needed for a few C files that are bundled with druntime and phobos, such as zlib.  Since the C compiler is only needed to build druntime/phobos for Win64 and not when distributing dmd for Win64, it's not as important as the COFF64 linker and C library.

The D devs can always download Visual Studio when building the dmd release, compile those C files, and not require users to get Visual Studio.  Of course, this assumes that there aren't any incompatibilities between COFF64 code generated by the Microsoft C compiler and your COFF64 linker and C library.

> The toolchain I am suggesting does include a C compiler that
> works for both 32 and 64 bit MSCOFF, so it sounds like it could
> be feasible, but whether it is worth it or not is a different
> story.

Huh, looks like you have everything you need then. :)