Could you add builds for x86 and WinXP to the GH Releases

[KOLANICH]

For now it is written that it supports x86, but there is no builds for it. Also could you create the builds for WinXP? The latest python version offiicially supporting XP is 3.4.4 (I guess it doesn't mean that you cannot build 3.5, they have changed MSVC version to the one generating the code incompatible with xp.).

[bejant]

I'll leave that for the FreeCAD packagers to decide, but XP has been unsupported for years. I switched to Linux when MS stopped support for XP. Why encourage people to use an obsolete and unsupported OS?

[Jee-Bee]

for 0.17 is x86 supported... for 0.16 is only with the backports no x86 for the normal serie it is...

[jmaustpc]

For now it is written that it supports x86, but there is no builds for it. Also could you create the builds for WinXP? The latest python version offiicially supporting XP is 3.4.4 (I guess it doesn't mean that you cannot build 3.5, they have changed MSVC version to the one generating the code incompatible with xp.).

This has been discussed previously. In addition to the comments from the others, for FreeCAD beyond version 0.16, Win XP support is impossible due to MS dropping support including in their compiler. You can't just use an old xp compatible compiler because we now use some newer features of C++ which although many years old, were not ever supported by MS on XP.

Some people have a CNC machine that runs WinXP, presumably upgrading those to Linux could be complex or problematic, perhaps the CNC machine's manufacturer might offer a solution.

Using XP on an Internet connect machine is irresponsible.

In another topic, from memory, the package builder said he had a problem compiling the last back port for 0.16 for some reason. FreeCAD 0.16 is now old and nearly at end of life, we will likely have the next realess version out in the not too distant future.

[KOLANICH]

Win XP support is impossible due to MS dropping support including in their compiler. You can't just use an old xp compatible compiler because we now use some newer features of C++ which although many years old, were not ever supported by MS on XP.

Why not to use mingw-w64 (it supports 32 bit, it cannot be run on winxp but it can produce code for winxp) then? As I know, GCC is much better than MSVCPP in standards support and optimization (one my app written in c++ compiled with msvcpp took 5 minutes to finish processing but the one compiled with gcc or clang took a few seconds on the same input).

[catman]

Sorry to revive this old thread. Seems to be the last information on that subject.

Some people have a CNC machine that runs WinXP, presumably upgrading those to Linux could be complex or problematic, perhaps the CNC machine's manufacturer might offer a solution.

I think that is the main use case. My PC controlled machines all run XP. I my case even thinking on contacting the manuactures about that without having a huge stack of money prepared is quite an rediculous endeavor.

Using XP on an Internet connect machine is irresponsible.

IMHO running any production type machine on the internet is irresponsible. Equally running things like a virus scanner on a CNC connected machine is good way to burn time and money...

Why not to use mingw-w64

Often changeing the compiler will throw up issues and turns out to be quite some effort. But I can not see why it could not be done. All comes down to whether its worth the effort. Probably there are too few people out there with such a configuration. Me, I am one of them and I definetly would use it and put FreeCAD on all of the machines. But maybe time is better spent to set up a Linux box beside them and access the shares via network. Not elegant, though .

Should someone wants to try a mingw-w64 build and needs a tester I would be happy to help. Would be interesting to know whether or not that works. Or why exactly it won't work either. That would be a good closure of this thread then.

[bejant]

To elaborate on my last post, I'll suggest doing what I did when not long before XP was going to become unsupported. Download Linux on a thumb drive and try it out. If you like it you can just run it from your thumb drive and install FreeCAD on your Linux thumb drive, or you can install Linux alongside XP on your hard drive and boot into XP or Linux. I still have XP on a partition (that I've since shrunken to about 35 Mb) but it's been years since I've booted into XP....

[sgrogan]

Should someone wants to try a mingw-w64 build and needs a tester I would be happy to help. Would be interesting to know whether or not that works. Or why exactly it won't work either. That would be a good closure of this thread then.

The issue is that FreeCAD has a HEAVY dependency stack. FreeCAD and the dependencies all have to be compatible to a common c/c++ runtime.
So it's not just build FreeCAD with mingw, it a matter of compiling Python, QT, Pyside, coin, OCC, ssl, tk/tcl, pivy, SMESH, etc.
Some of these packages link against each other so the order of building the stack is important. All this must be done for both 32 bit and 64 bit (maybe only 32 bit, because you can run 32 bit app on a 64 bit system, but the request will be for 64 bit support?)

I think if one would tackle this it would get support from the main devs if there were issues with the FreeCAD source. The effort would be immense. Search the forum using "conda" , "libpack" , or "debian packaging" Even using existing state of the art it's a massive undertaking.

XP specifically would be difficult, 32 bit in general is becoming more difficult. Even some Linux distros have begun discussing dropping support.

[catman]

(only 32 bit, because you can run 32 bit app on a 64 bit system, but the request will be for 64 bit support?)

not sure if that was a question. If so, the use case was XP 32 bit.

The effort would be immense. Search the forum using "conda" , "libpack" , or "debian packaging" Even using existing state of the art it's a massive undertaking.

"debian packaging" seems to be less windows related (I hope).

32 bit in general is becoming more difficult.

WIn7 32 is being provided. So the general 32bit issues are being handled under Win7. The interesting question is about what makes XP 32bit different to Win7 32bit on the MinGW side. My feeling is that once MinGW compiles for Win7 much would run in XP as well. The immense effort surely would be to move to MinGW in the first place...

[sgrogan]

"debian packaging" seems to be less windows related (I hope).

Well MinGW uses gcc as the compiler so it may be the most relevant.

WIn7 32 is being provided. So the general 32bit issues are being handled under Win7. The interesting question is about what makes XP 32bit different to Win7 32bit on the MinGW side. My feeling is that once MinGW compiles for Win7 much would run in XP as well.

The issue is when using MS compilers C++ features that FreeCAD uses are not supported for the compilers that support XP. Maybe using MinGW solves this but I'm not sure.

The immense effort surely would be to move to MinGW in the first place...

Agreed 100% on this point.