[webkit-dev] Request for Update to Windows Development Environment

[Brent Fulgham]

Hi Everyone,

I've been working on getting WebGL running under Windows.  An
important part of this task is integrating the ANGLE software to
handle shader translation, much as you currently do with the Mac build
of WebKit.

Unfortunately, the ANGLE sources in the WebKit archive will not build
with Visual Studio 2005, because they require the June 2010 DirectX
SDK to work.  As you know, this (and more recent) versions of DirectX
are not compatible with VS 2005. Consequently, holding the Windows
side of WebKit development to a six-year-old development environment
has at long last become a severe burden for achieving feature parity
with the non-Windows WebKit ports.

WebKit already builds and runs cleanly under Visual Studio 2008.  In
fact, my workflow for generating a build to use in my own software
involves checking out the WebKit ToT and simply opening it in Visual
Studio 2008 (pressing 'Finish' when asked to update).  I also know
that the Open Source components used by WebKit (libxml, etc.) build
fine under Visual Studio 2008, since I've had to do so in support of
my VS2008 WebKit Build.

Can we please move away from VS2005 in the near future?  What can we
(outside of Apple) do to help make this possible?

-Brent