Re: Performance issues on Windows, suggests a MSVC build

[John W. Eaton]

On 22-Jun-2011, Michael Goffioul wrote:

| Indeed, you're right. My apologies.
| Doesn't change much to the end result, though.

OK, but from reading the FAQ entry, we are apparently allowed to
distribute Octave compiled with MSVC and linked with MSVC runtime
libraries.  We just can't distribute the runtime library along with
Octave.  As I recall, you objected to that on technical grounds
because it would be somewhat silly and inconvenient, and many (if not
most) users would probably encounter problems.  I might also object on
the grounds that it is an instance of telling the user to perform the
link to a proprietary library, and for other cases we argue that doing
that is no way to sidestep the terms of the GPL, so it will be
confusing if we allow it in this case but not others.  The difference
is that the MSVC runtime library is considered a "System Component"
and so gets special treatment, but it will likely still cause some
confusion.  And for me, there is also the issue of wanting to promote
free software, not proprietary software.

jwe