The question, put bluntly, is "Where do I get it ?"

I've had a coupla goes at finding the free command line version of Visual Studio, but without success ... in fact I've never been able to find anything that I've gone looking for, on the MS website.In fact, whenever I visit the MS website I always come away thinking that I was bloody lucky to escape alive !!

So ... if someone can give me the link of the page to visit, and the search string(s) to enter, that would be great. All the better if someone can come up with the actual download links.

I gather, from the README.win32 in the perl 5.8.8 source, that I'm also going to need the "Platform SDK" (and possibly other stuff as well) - since the main aim is to be able to build a 64-bit perl (on an AMD64), or at least be able to compile perl extensions for ActiveState's 64-bit build of perl. (Does anyone here know specifically which version of Visual Studio ActiveState used to build their 64-bit version of perl ?)

BWOE: I'm about to take possession of an AMD64 computer (XP64 OS) - it's a Christmas present from a very important person (ie, me) to an equally important person (me) ... though the real beneficiary will be the shop I bought it from. First thing I'll want to do is connect it to the net, and the second thing I'll want to do is build a 64-bit version of perl 5.8.8. Unfortunately, my preferred compiler (the MinGW port of gcc) is 32-bit only and, afaict, if I want a 64-bit compiler on Windows I'm going to have to use a Microsoft 64-bit compiler ... and the free version of Visual Studio is one such compiler. (Please correct any mistakes I've made, so far)

I already have a copy of the commercial release of Visual Studio 7.0. I don't know if it has 64-bit capability, as I've only ever used it on Win32. Does anyone know whether it's likely to have 64-bit capabiity ? (I guess I'll find out for sure next week when I take possesssion of the new box.)

I also believe that I'll be able to build and run 32-bit apps (including MinGW-built 32-bit perl) on the AMD64 box. (Someone might like to gently forewarn me if that's not the case.)

One last question: Does Cygwin provide a 64-bit compiler for 64-bit processors ?

Cheers,
Rob

In reply to [OT] The free version of Visual Studio by syphilis

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