David Abrahams wrote:
As a Boost user, my point of view that if the docs says I can use plain "msvc" and use autolink,
Where does it say that? If that's the case, that's doc bug.
In /more/getting_started/windows.html in the Boost 1.34.0 beta package. Specifically look at section 5.2.4 and section 6.
Well, if it's not a Boost.Build / BoostAutolink bug, it's certainly surprising. In one context, boost code automatically detects the msvc version and forces a request to a library whose name contains that version number, and in another context, boost code generates a complicated library name, ignoring the version number, that can **never** be linked to by any Boost code unless autolinking is disabled. This should **just work**, and it's possible (probably easy) to implement. Sorry, I just can't accept that it's the fault of the documentation.
I don't think there's anything that autolinking can do to fix this: it requires that libraries are named consistently, and there's no way around that. So we either need to update the docs, or preferably fix Boost.Build to detect the MSVC version. As Dave says it does this in other contexts already, so it should be possible. BTW, this is a showstopper for 1.34 release I believe. John.