A wish for the upcoming 2.4.3 release

[CyanDog]

Hello, I am currently using old software (Windows XP, Visual Studio 2008 and 2010).

I wish that the next few SFML 2.4.x releases will continue to support legacy systems. I do understand that there is a natural urge to abandon unsupported operating systems and start using improved standards such as C++11. Of course I am in favor of such progress for SFML 3, however I also want backward compatibility to be maintained for a few more years, in the form of SFML 2.4.x releases.

As a Windows XP user I am already abandoned by the developers of MSYS2, Cygwin and nuwen MinGW, for no good technical reason and it is displeasing. So please consider keeping the 2.4.x releases backward compatible and written in C++98. Kind regards.

[Laurent]

As a Windows XP user

Can you describe the reasons why you're stuck on such an old system?

[CyanDog]

As a Windows XP user

Can you describe the reasons why you're stuck on such an old system?

My choice is one part irrational (personal preference and nostalgia) and one part rational (old hardware works better with old software).

[eXpl0it3r]

There's likely no 2.4.3 release, the next one will be 2.5.0, but as mentioned before, we haven't dropped Windows XP yet, however we also won't go out of our way to test compatibility. It's an old (and unsafe) OS, as such we will depend on people actually reporting issues and more importantly testing potential fixes.

Keep in mind, that this support will unlikely last forever, as we might potentially introduce newer features into the API, that won't work on XP (e.g. DPI handling). It's already hard enough to build software for (modern) Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android that we can't really invest too much time into XP for one or two people's nostalgic experience.

[Hapax]

As a Windows XP user I am already abandoned by the developers of MSYS2, Cygwin and nuwen MinGW, for no good technical reason and it is displeasing. So please consider keeping the 2.4.x releases backward compatible and written in C++98.

It's worth noting that Microsoft itself has already given up on XP.
As for C++ version, as long as SFML is in version 2, it should still be C++98. However, version 3 will likely require C++11 (or later). So, all upgrades in SFML version 2 should be fine for you (excepting any XP-only bugs that might be missed).