I went on to try and compile the latest trunk, taken from the SVN, and i ran across this little gem which prevented the first build from succeding...
In the freespace.rc there is this line
IDR_CMD_CFG SRGRAMMAR DISCARDABLE "..\..\code\sound\phrases.cfg"
yet, in the folder in code its called phrases.xml
is this just an accident or? i'm no programmer so... well

also, how do i compile the release build? i managed to compile the debug build... using visual studio 2008 professional edition (my father is a programmer and he decided to share the software with me

)