to which compiler should we step up to bundle with CB

[Miguel Gimenez]

There are a lot of users (and potential users) that still use W7 (even XP). In the company I work for about 80 % of the OS are W7-64, there are one XP and one W7-32, only a few are W10.

  - If you compile next release using the UCRT compiler they will have problems, unless the installer takes care of the needed MSW update.
  - If you bundle the UCRT compiler, they will need to install the MSW update when deploying their software to pre-W10 systems.

IMHO, MSVCRT will be with us many years.

[killerbot]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/update-for-universal-c-runtime-in-windows-c0514201-7fe6-95a3-b0a5-287930f3560c

 seems this works to for Win 7 (even that horrible Vista), only XP is out of the picture, which I really think is ok, we should drop old stuff some day.

[Miguel Gimenez]

Also, whatever compiler is chosen must be properly detected. 20.03 had problems detecting the bundled compiler.

[killerbot]

currently nightly detected it without issues for me.

[ollydbg]

For me, I'm still using GCC with MSVCRT runtime. It works fine under Win7 and Win10. I haven't see someone using UCRT under Win7 before.

[MortenMacFly]

anyone any epxerience with this one, looks very promising : https://winlibs.com/

This is currently also my favourite compiler suite. However, the last version that was able to compile everything I have a need for was:
gcc-10.3.0-llvm-12.0.0-mingw-w64-9.0.0-r2
...but I will try version 13 - seems this might be a good one if it compiles wx32, indeed.

[nenin]

GCC 13 is important step for MinGW-w64 because it should support native Win32 threads. At least I can run simple test from the box.
Nixman just published GCC 13.1:  https://github.com/niXman/mingw-builds-binaries/releases  - it is kind of further development of the current 8.1.

[nenin]

I haven't see someone using UCRT under Win7 before.

It is me. 
I did it also on XP, with moderate success. 
By any way better to install UCRT if possible, even if soft is linked against MSVCRT.

[MortenMacFly]

...but I will try version 13 - seems this might be a good one if it compiles wx32, indeed.

I did that now an with:
gcc-13.1.0-llvm-16.0.4-mingw-w64ucrt-11.0.0-r4
...I have full success with all of my projects! This would be my current favourite.
I can also live very well with niXman, but as I said in the other thread: Since in the WinLibs release most common libs/tools are also bundled I would prefer the WinLib one.
Lets see how the next nightly with POSIX threads turns out...

[killerbot]

you mean the latest nightly ;-)
It is already existing.

[MortenMacFly]

I did that now an with:
gcc-13.1.0-llvm-16.0.4-mingw-w64ucrt-11.0.0-r4
...I have full success with all of my projects! This would be my current favourite.

BTW: There are projects that do not compile but still do with TDM - who really was the best IMHO. What does not compile are static builds (including static c/c++ libs) based on openmp. Unfortunately symbols are missing in that case. However, still its a very good compiler. Maybe I can strip these down to a reproducible sample and send to the author as a bug-report...

[ollydbg]

I did that now an with:
gcc-13.1.0-llvm-16.0.4-mingw-w64ucrt-11.0.0-r4
...I have full success with all of my projects! This would be my current favourite.

BTW: There are projects that do not compile but still do with TDM - who really was the best IMHO. What does not compile are static builds (including static c/c++ libs) based on openmp. Unfortunately symbols are missing in that case. However, still its a very good compiler. Maybe I can strip these down to a reproducible sample and send to the author as a bug-report...

I think the author of winlibs project is very active, see: brechtsanders (Brecht Sanders), maybe he can help.