Visual Studio Project for the runtime #20783

[12345swordy]

@rainers @thewilsonator
Ok I got the basics done, it builds the library solution successfully. Let me know if there anything else that the solution should do.
Fixes #20783

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[thewilsonator]

I feel like this is liable to get out of sync as files are added and moved around.

[rainers]

dmd.vcxproj uses the deprecated, but still functional source globbing version:

  <ItemGroup>
    <DCompile Include="../dmd/**/*.d" Exclude="../dmd/frontend.d;../dmd/asttypename.d" />
  </ItemGroup>

That hasn't broken for years AFAICT. You must edit the project in a text editor, though, as saving it from within VS wrecks that.

I would not add a new directory just for the new project, add druntime.vcxproj along side dmd.vcxproj.

[rainers]

I suspect you will need some msbuild-magic to switch the compiler from the dmd-project to be used for building druntime. Any other compiler is not guaranteed to be in sync and might not be able to compile the current version of druntime.

[12345swordy]

@rainers I can't find the ability to override the default path of the dmd compiler anywhere in visual d here.

[rainers]

@rainers I can't find the ability to override the default path of the dmd compiler anywhere in visual d here.

I think you should be able to replace the path to dmd.exe with something like

    <PropertyGroup>
      <DMDBinDir>$(ProjectDir)\..\..\..\generated\Windows\$(Platform)\$(ConfigurationName)</DMDBinDir>
    </PropertyGroup>

somewhere after the eraly imports.

[12345swordy]

@rainers Ok! Its officially done! It builds using the generated dmd executable per requested.