[RESOLVED] Raising the bar for fixes to legacy compiler (and planning for 2005 SP2)?

[Ted.]

As the bar has raised as to what bugs are being considered for fix ( for those who haven't read, please see: http://blogs.msdn.com/vcblog/archive/2006/05/30/610989.aspx )

what is the choosing strategy for service packs with respect to the compiler? As SP1 for Visual C++ 2005 had a very short dev cycle and has already been closed down, can you give information on whether the following bug fixes are included in SP1 (e.g. of performance regressions and customer vote count)

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=98890

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=101419

or the libraries?

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=98737

Would it be a useful process to circulate a list of fixes being considered for SP1 for about a week so others externally can look at the list and see if anything's missing?

What exactly is the strategy for SP2 in planning? Will Orcas effectively be SP2? (just as 2005 was effectively SP1 of 2003 since the window of usefulness of releasing an SP for 2003 has long since passed)

[joncaves]

Hi Ted:

The first issue, http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=98890, is currently being worked on by one of the developers on the optimizier. The second issue, http://connect.microsoft.com/Visual...edbackID=101419, has been resolved as a duplicate as the issue was also opened by by one of our testers (I think that this issue started out on the MSDN forums). This bug has been fixed.

As we're still in the process of closing down SP1 we haven't started the planning for SP2 so at the moment I can't say if SP2 will appear before or after the next release of Visual C++. We definitely do look very carefully at each bug but, strange as it may seem, we don't have unlimited resources on the Visual C++ compiler team so we can't fix every bug - so instead we try to focus on those bugs which block development and/or have high impact.

[Ted.]

Thanks for the answer.

I can imagine that some careful decisions have to be made for each issue as to how much testing it would take, how much instability it might bring etc. And also I can imagine that hotfixes are expensive to produce too so I don't expect hotfixes for each and every issue out there (just the big ones).

But for future consideration, it would be nice to have the ability to review an SP1 inclusion list of some sort (either by request or through MVP/partner channels etc.) and/or have an open beta program for this SP.

Ted.

[joncaves]

I agree with you - at the very least we should have a way to list which of the issues that were reported through the Product Feedback site were fixed. I'll pass on the suggestion to the appropriate members of the team.

[Lesliegi]

I'm one of the VC++ Release PMs, and am working on VS2005 SP1. The last bug that you asked about (98737) has been fixed and will be included in the Service Pack. I am currently working with the other Program managers on our team to put together a list of the Customer bugs that we have fixed and will be included in VS2005 SP1. We hope to have that list posted on our blog by the end of this week. Thanks, Leslie

[Ted.]

That's great news Leslie - thanks for getting that list together.

[Ted.]

Leslie, I hope you don't mind, can you check for me one other bug that has hit us brutally (the resource conditional preprocessing problem)

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=99368

Can this please be included in SP1, and also is there currently a hotfix that exists for this?