Visual C ++ 12 Toolchain without Visual Studio

Question

I am trying to create a wercker window that can create Visual Studio 2013 C ++ projects (Visual C ++ 12).

Traditionally, in order to have only a toolchain, you must install the Windows SDK. But in the latest version, 8.1 , they removed the compiler toolchain.

Is there a way to install the toolchain compiler without installing Visual Studio 2013?

I looked at my eyes and installed the entire Visual Studio every time every build seems like a bad idea. I contacted people to find out if they can include the Visual C ++ toolchain in their Windows base box. On the other hand, the philosophy with wercker is that if you don’t find a field that you need to create yourself, and it works amazingly, except that the default base field is Ubuntu Linux. Adding one small tool doesn't really matter, but is Visual Studio 2013 a compiler-only installation?

Answer 1

Yes

Recently, there are Microsoft Visual C ++ Build Tools . Please note that at the moment (that is, the last time I checked) you could not select the SDK installation options, so I suggest just installing the tools (without the SDK) and then installing the SDK with the necessary parameters. This will reduce installation time and disk usage for an already huge package of stand-alone tools.

---

No (see above for an update).

In the era of Visual Studio 2003.net before Visual Studio 2010, this was possible by installing the appropriate Windows SDK (or Platform SDK for version 2003.net).

This turned out to be impossible to support for Microsoft, because they could not decide which one (VS or SDK) would own the tool chain and be responsible for updating it, which would lead to the MSVC10 SP1 fiasco for SDK users in which the Visual Service Pack Studio will remove the SDK compiler. A patched update was later released, but it was all terribly stupid. I promise you that I do not.

Probably, not only for this reason, MS decided to deprive the Windows SDK of its tool chain, but instead force the user to install a ton of cracks to get into the compiler. The good news is that earlier 32-bit versions of VS Express now also contain a 64-bit target compiler, so essentially you can still use the compiler for free by installing Visual Studio Express for Windows Desktop.

Starting with Visual Studio 2013, the Express version has been replaced with a community version, which is largely a paid version (with plug-in support), but with some restrictions on its use within organizations (see the Q & A section on this website ). For open source development, this means that you get full Visual Studio for free, which is actually quite surprising.

---

If you need a lightweight Windows development environment (and you don't need VS support, such as .net or some MS-isms in your code), I highly recommend using GCC MinGW-w64. This is much better with language support, provides better warnings and errors, and improves portability of your code.