Fix for Issue #13339 cause MS Visual Studio 2015 to always fail configuration for cpp plugin

[epxilinx]

The changes in #15975 add the vswhere argument -utf8which is not support by VS 2015 vswhere.exe version. Workaround is to manually install updated version of vswhere. Note that I cannot update MSVS version due to company restrictions.

Expected Behavior

Configuration of project that uses cpp application plugin should pass or at least fail with message indicating vswhere needs to be updated.
Note that there is an "ignoring" message when vswhere returns non-zero but it quickly results in a NPE. Failing with a meaningful vswhere exit code would have been a preferable error state.

Current Behavior

Configure project :myapp
Evaluating project ':myapp' using build file 'C:\dev\sb1\myapp\build.gradle'.
Starting process 'command 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe''. Working directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe -all -legacy -format json -utf8
Successfully started process 'command 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe''

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• What went wrong:
  A problem occurred configuring project ':myapp'.
  java.lang.NullPointerException (no error message)

Direct call to vswhere:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -all -legacy -utf8
Visual Studio Locator version 2.4.1+g2035d08a45 [query version 1.16.1163.30317]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Error 0x57: Unknown parameter: utf8

[ov7a]

Sorry for the late reply.

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Please, provide all the steps required to reproduce this and all relevant environment details

[epxilinx]

To reproduce the problem:

1. Install VS 2015
2. configure a gradle project that uses the cpp application plugin

[ov7a]

@epxilinx Why do you think that this is a problem caused by Gradle and not VS2015?

[epxilinx]

@ov7a is VS2015 supported by gradle?
If it is supported the problem is gradle's faulty assumption that the -utf8 argument is supported by all versions of vswhere.
If it is not supported please advertise that fact either in the documentation or via a clearer error message from the plugin.

vswhere utf8 commit: microsoft/vswhere@2444e2e

[ov7a]

We don't have plans to support VS2015.
This issue can be addressed in the documentation.