Why being so backward compatible ?

[Scr3amer]

Hello guys,

I was doing my first PR and realised all the constraints we have. So I have some genuine questions to have more context:

• Why do we need to support Windows XP ? Do we actually have a Windows XP user base ?
• Same question for ISO C90

Cheers

[stealthpaladin]

I am indeed using ANSI C... >_>;

[ws909]

I am indeed using ANSI C... >_>;

Assuming C89: why?

Btw, I think this question would be a better fit for the GLFW forum.

[stealthpaladin]

I am indeed using ANSI C... >_>;

Assuming C89: why?

Btw, I think this question would be a better fit for the GLFW forum.

Due to ABI compatibility with other libraries

[PQCraft]

Why do we need to support Windows XP ? Do we actually have a Windows XP user base ?

yes :trollface:

[ws909]

I’m not sure if that’s very clarifying. It’s better to answer why we have an XP userbase. The OS is 22 years old. There’s no security updates for it. So why still use it?

[PQCraft]

I have some old stuff that won't run anything newer.

[elmindreda]

Those are fair questions. In both cases it was a combination of inertia and that both XP and VS2012 lived a frustratingly long time.

Why do we need to support Windows XP?

Support for Windows XP will be deprecated and then removed at some point after the release of 3.4. The initial 3.4 release will still contain XP-compatible binaries.

Why do we need to support [...] ISO C90?

This removal of this restriction has now been announced with #2465 and will be done in the coming weeks. The ABI shouldn't be affected by this. The public header files will remain C89/C90 for the time being.