Hi everyone!

I searched around the forum but didn't find the answer, so I'd ask here.
I'm curious whether there's a way to standardize Windows SDK headers. What if we implement automatic generation from IDLs? I think that absence of standard Windows SDK headers that come out of the box (or standard non-abandoned package) is something that prevents some developers from switching to D on Windows. I think that we can contact Microsoft and get some help with that. I can start this, but I need to understand what pitfalls could be.

What do you think?

Thanks for the attention!

We don't need Microsoft's help for this.

The frontend should be augmented to support IDL based creation of the AST.

Everything that we need is in WinAPI.

It is not an LDC specific issue.

On 22/02/2020 10:39 PM, rikki cattermole wrote:
> We don't need Microsoft's help for this.
> 
> The frontend should be augmented to support IDL based creation of the AST.
> 
> Everything that we need is in WinAPI.
> 
> It is not an LDC specific issue.

Just to clarrify:

You would compile the IDL files to typelib via the MIDL compiler, these are what you distribute.

You will then load the typelib file via i.e. LoadTypeLib or LoadRegTypeLib which uses the registry to look it up.

On Saturday, 22 February 2020 at 09:53:08 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
> On 22/02/2020 10:39 PM, rikki cattermole wrote:
>> We don't need Microsoft's help for this.
>> 
>> The frontend should be augmented to support IDL based creation of the AST.
>> 
>> Everything that we need is in WinAPI.
>> 
>> It is not an LDC specific issue.
>
> Just to clarrify:
>
> You would compile the IDL files to typelib via the MIDL compiler, these are what you distribute.
>
> You will then load the typelib file via i.e. LoadTypeLib or LoadRegTypeLib which uses the registry to look it up.

Does it make sense to propose this as GSOC project?
https://forum.dlang.org/post/uxxnxpcsxfsaqqtlikmw@forum.dlang.org

Kind regards
Andre

On 24/02/2020 2:09 AM, Andre Pany wrote:
> On Saturday, 22 February 2020 at 09:53:08 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
>> On 22/02/2020 10:39 PM, rikki cattermole wrote:
>>> We don't need Microsoft's help for this.
>>>
>>> The frontend should be augmented to support IDL based creation of the AST.
>>>
>>> Everything that we need is in WinAPI.
>>>
>>> It is not an LDC specific issue.
>>
>> Just to clarrify:
>>
>> You would compile the IDL files to typelib via the MIDL compiler, these are what you distribute.
>>
>> You will then load the typelib file via i.e. LoadTypeLib or LoadRegTypeLib which uses the registry to look it up.
> 
> Does it make sense to propose this as GSOC project?
> https://forum.dlang.org/post/uxxnxpcsxfsaqqtlikmw@forum.dlang.org
> 
> Kind regards
> Andre

It depends.

If there is a suitable mentor that can handle the AST generation side, sure.