Microsoft C/C++ change history 2003 - 2015

Microsoft C/C++ change history 2003 - 2015

PLOT library is written in 2003, but can not compile after it because of the upgrade of compiler.

1. Microsoft C/C++ change history 2003 - 2015

This article describes all the breaking changes from Visual Studio 2015 going back to Visual Studio 2003, and in this article the terms "new behavior" or "now" refer to Visual Studio 2015 and later. The terms "old behavior" and "before" refer to Visual Studio 2013 and earlier releases.

2. Visual C++ What's New 2003 through 2015

This page gathers all the "What's New" pages for all versions of Visual C++ from Visual Studio 2015 back to 2003. This information is provided as a convenience in case it might be useful when upgrading from earlier versions of Visual Studio.

3. C++ binary compatibility between Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019

The Microsoft C++ (MSVC) compiler toolsets in Visual Studio 2013 and earlier don't guarantee binary compatibility across major versions. You can't link object files, static libraries, dynamic libraries, and executables built by different versions of these toolsets. The ABIs, object formats, and runtime libraries are incompatible.

We've changed this behavior in Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019. The runtime libraries and apps compiled by any of these versions of the compiler are binary-compatible. It's reflected in the C++ toolset major number, which starts with 14 for all three versions. (The toolset version is v140 for Visual Studio 2015, v141 for 2017, and v142 for 2019). Say you have third-party libraries built by Visual Studio 2015. You can still use them in an application built by Visual Studio 2017 or 2019. There's no need to recompile with a matching toolset. The latest version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package (the Redistributable) works for all of them.