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docs: the Windows traps of the Zig 0.17 move - #494
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MSVC exes link oldnames themselves, translate-c takes --libc= before its --, and sdl_zig leaves SDL's core/linux/ out of a Windows build. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Part of fizzyedit/plans#5 (`plans/ZIG_0_17_PLAN.md`, step 2): fizzy, its backend and its bundled plugins move to Zig 0.17. Every piece was reviewed as its own PR into `zig/0.17`, and this PR lands that branch. `main` is already merged in (through #555), so it carries no conflicts. ## What changes **The move to 0.17** (`minimum_zig_version = "0.17.0"` everywhere), as reviewed in: - #437: the switch, scaffolded with marked stand-ins - #438: the build's custom steps become helper programs - #448: release packaging on 0.17, with Velopack 1.2.161 (+ #452's zon arenas) - #488: settings and command schemas read 0.17's `@typeInfo`, with a test that the SDK fingerprint hashes the same facts as on 0.16 - #489: per-pointer capture through `captureMouseGet` - #494: the Windows traps in `docs/PITFALLS.md` - #496: `blitData` without an `extern struct` `@bitCast` - #498: `fizzy.plugin.installBeside`, for a plugin's helper program - #505: the 0.16 inflate workaround goes; the docs say 0.17 - #561: review fixes. A settings payload with pointers is a compile error, and build reads go through `b.root`. - #573: the plugin install helper compiles once, in Debug - the catch-ups with `main` (#486, #503, #558, #574, and the last merge here), each with `scripts/zig-0.17/rewrite.sh` re-run. That script is deleted in the last commit. Most of the diff is mechanical: `zig fmt`'s upgrades (`@backingInt`, `std.lang`, …) and one-answer renames. The hand migrations are the build (configure/make split, no custom steps), the zon arenas, `@typeInfo`, translate-c for `@cImport`, and the `@bitCast` audit. A high-effort review of the whole `main`…`zig/0.17` diff found five things; the three correctness ones are fixed in #561, and one efficiency one in #573. **Also on the branch, merged there by the maintainer:** the windowing work. - #480–#483: plain dvui apps on macOS - #492, #501, #504, #510: OS windows for floating windows, full screen, pointer routing - #546: window materials **Forks:** dvui-dev at its `zig-0.17` head `1b29a16`, which carries fizzy-dev's patches on upstream's 0.17 `main`, including #540, #544 and #563's dvui commits. Also assetpack, md4zig, sdl_zig and zig-objc on their `zig-0.17` branches, and velopack-zig `3d553b7` (tagged `fizzy-zig0.17`). ## Measured macOS arm64, under load from other sessions, each step alternated between the two. 0.16 is `main` #509; 0.17 is `zig/0.17` with #561. | | Zig 0.16 | Zig 0.17 | |---|---|---| | App, cold Debug build | 94.4 s | 78.6 s | | App, warm no-op rebuild | 0.7 s | 0.4 s | | `test-integration` (compile + run) | 108.9 s | 90.4 s | | App, ReleaseFast build | 142.8 s | 131.5 s | | Image plugin, cold standalone build | 11.6 s | 14.0 s (with #573) | | Startup, Debug (median of 5) | 565 ms | 466 ms | | Startup, ReleaseFast (median of 5) | 175 ms | 177 ms | | Text, ReleaseFast, µs/frame: idle / mid / scroll / typing | 305 / 424 / 435 / 403 | 240 / 306 / 286 / 290 | | Markdown, ReleaseFast, 4 docs, median of 5, µs/frame: idle top / mid / scroll / resize | 1177 / 1735 / 2104 / 1319 | 1270 / 1699 / 1833 / 1192 | The one slowdown is markdown idle at the top of a document, +8%. The rest of the plugin build's gap is dvui's own translate-c on 0.17. ## The plan's gate - **ZLS:** no 0.17 release yet (latest 0.16.0). zigtools/zls#3270 is on ZLS's master. Completions across `fizzy_sdk` from a plugin are not checked. - **Minimum OS:** 0.17 needs Darwin 15+ (OS X 10.11); fizzy's macOS minimum is 11.0, so no change. Windows 10+ and Linux 5.10+ are not stated by fizzy. - **Debug leak reports:** still print (`DebugAllocator`, deprecated, unchanged). The move to `SafeAllocator` is a follow-up with its own Debug frame-time check. - **Velopack:** packaging proven by a test release on macOS (signed and notarized), Windows and Linux. An update in place was not tested. - **Every target builds:** in CI. Windows and Linux were not run by hand on the VMs. ## SDK impact - [x] Fingerprint moved (`0x5f9c818a6972efd4`, recorded in `sdk/src/version.zig`); `sdk_version` untouched. `sdk: release 0.2.30` follows this at once. Plugins need Zig 0.17 to build against it: there's no overlap window. - Plugin authors see `minimum_zig_version = "0.17.0"` and `fizzy.plugin.installBeside`. A settings payload holding pointers other than a string is now a compile error. `docs/PLUGINS.md` says 0.17.0. ## Right after this merges 1. fizzyedit/example-app#8 and fizzyedit/example-plugin#13 merge. Then a one-line PR points `scripts/check-examples.sh` back at `main` (it pins the examples' `zig-0.17` branches until then, so `main`'s CI is never red). 2. `sdk: release 0.2.30`. 3. The store plugins' 0.17 PRs repin and release: fizzyedit/pixi#51, zig#15, atlas#16, drive#13, ghostty#14, agent#23, chat#16. ## Verified - [x] macOS (arm64, Zig 0.17.0), on this tree: - `scripts/check-fmt.sh` - `zig build`: 71/71 - `zig build test`: 109/109 steps, 637/638 (1 skipped) - `zig build check-tests-reached`: 998 tests in 122 files - `zig build check-web`: 42/42 - `zig build test-sdk-version`: 35/35 - `zig build test-integration`: 78/78 steps, 608/608 - [x] All seven store plugins built against `zig/0.17`'s `sdk/` and loaded together in a 0.17 fizzy (Debug, sandbox profile). - [ ] Windows, Linux, the example repos: CI. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Part of fizzyedit/plans#5 (
plans/ZIG_0_17_PLAN.md, step 2). Writes down the three Windows traps the 0.17 release work (#448) cost time on, so they cost the next person a minute.What changes
docs/PITFALLS.md, under "The build (Zig 0.17)", gets a "Windows, on 0.17" subsection:oldnamesitself. 0.16 did it for every*-windows-msvcexe and 0.17 doesn't, sogetcwd/chdirstop resolving. Now inbuild/exe.zig.translate-ctakes--libc=<ini>before its--. After the--, the flag goes to the C front end and is lost. Now inbuild/msvc.zig.core/linux/for Windows.SDL_dbus.cincludes<unistd.h>before its guard. Done in fizzyedit/sdl_zigef7eb36; a move to upstream sdl_zig must keep the filter.SDK impact
Verified
build/exe.zig,build/msvc.zig, sdl_zigbuild.zigatef7eb36).🤖 Generated with Claude Code