Windows: Replace VisualStudio with gcc/clang?

[Hendrik Schreiber]

>> 
>> From my perspective, something needs to change, as I found it
>> completely impossible to install the old Visual Studio releases the
>> JDK demands (and it took ages just to find them). Requiring outdated
>> tooling to build the JDK really isn't great.
>> 
>> Stephen
>> 
> 
> I agree. This is what I meant when I wrote earlier:
> 
> "Also, installing Visual Studio could be easier by making sure that we
> always can build with the latest community version, early when it comes
> out. Since it is not so easy to find community/express/whatever downloads
> for earlier versions of Visual Studio. "

I guess, if you have a clean system that you use for nothing else but playing with OpenJDK, it’s relatively easy.

But I have found that keeping multiple VS installations in parallel on a single machine is challenging to say the least. Whenever I want to do something for OpenJDK, I fear for other build environments that have different needs. The gcc/clang suggestion was born out of the assumption that they are much easier to manage/choose from the command line. I still remember the hoops one had to jump through to get a 64bit compiler installed under VS. This all may just be “perceived” difficulties due to unfamiliarity, but they’re still real.

The Visual Studio Build Tools may solve most of the issues I have with VS. And perhaps it’s less of a monster to download.

-hendrik