[mjn.mixael]

Microsoft released Visual Studio Community 2013 which is a full version of Visual Studio for use with non-enterprise projects. This is a big deal for us because it comes with the MFC libraries. These libraries, being required to build FRED, mean FRED is now that much more accessible to more developers to enhance and fix bugs. (Until that glorious day in the future where wxFRED becomes a usable thing.)

I had a little trouble building FRED at first. Turns out I simply needed to install this too.

Just wanted to bring this to everyone's attention because I'm not sure if everyone saw Fury's post in IRC.

[zookeeper]

Woah. It really works. Awesome.

[z64555]

gah, beat me to the punch. That's what I get for having too many tasks in the queue.

Regarding wxFRED, this should also help with the reverse engineering of FRED so that the team can make better stuff (or maybe help maintain FRED, too).

z64555 makes a note to hurry up with his other projects so he can commit to wxFRED

[procdrone]

And what does it means for simple mission designers and part time users that have no idea about FRED code and all?

[Fury]

Nothing. Carry on as usual.

[chief1983]

mjn, I can't access that second download, it's behind some sort of authentication mechanism.

[karajorma]

Nothing. Carry on as usual.

Not quite. It probably means more updates and faster bug fixes for them since coders who couldn't fix FRED bugs or add FRED features before, now can.

But yeah, nothing directly.

[AdmiralRalwood]

mjn, I can't access that second download, it's behind some sort of authentication mechanism.

It's the MFC libraries for VS2013.

[mjn.mixael]

I *think* I fixed the link. But yeah, just the libraries for 2013.

[chief1983]

So, the first download, doesn't actually with the MFCs, but it works with the ones available as a separate download?  Does this include the static linking library files?  That's the key piece we were missing before I think.

[mjn.mixael]

All I did was install VS Community 2013 and tried to build. FRED failed with an error and a web link to follow for help. I went to the link which said to install the second thing. Did that. Built and it worked.

[AdmiralRalwood]

It's the same libraries I had to install to compile FRED under VS 2013 Professional, so it's looking like "Community" having the same capabilities as Professional is confirmed.

[procdrone]

Nothing. Carry on as usual.

Not quite. It probably means more updates and faster bug fixes for them since coders who couldn't fix FRED bugs or add FRED features before, now can.

But yeah, nothing directly.

So that would mean that we can get the Ctrl+C Ctrl+V shortcuts and things like working already? That would be awesome (as for me)

[Fury]

Current fred2_open requires MFC libraries which previous free edition of Visual Studio (Express) did not support. The new free edition of Visual Studio (Community) does. This means that developers who did not have access to recent versions of Visual Studio through their work or school can now use the Community edition of the latest Visual Studio to develop and compile fred2_open.

It does not mean that something is now possible that previously wasn't. It does not mean that anyone is still going to get around to doing X or Y, although there is a higher chance of it happening if more developers now can work on fred2_open. It does not mean that there actually will be more developers working on fred2_open, this simply removes one potentially expensive obstacle to that however.

[Fury]

z64555 apparently had a problem where VS 2013 community installer was installing Windows Phone emulator even though it was not selected. You should let it install it without canceling. You can later remove windows phone emulators in control panel --> programs and features.

If you install the phone emulator, it also installs hyper-v. If it is installed, you cannot run other virtualization software like virtualbox. You can remove hyper-v in control panel --> programs and features --> turn windows features on or off.

[z64555]

The MFC's still works with existing VS Express install even without the phone emulator or VS community .exe, but at this point I'm not sure if there are any consequences from this.

[Fury]

That's because Visual Studio family (Express,Community,Professional, etc) all share most of their data. The community edition installs more or less the same bits as Professional does. Installing VS Pro over Express would do the same thing.

Express is now obsolete and I don't think there is any need to keep it around.