Should --app:gui ensure linking to user32 on Windows?

[skyfex]

To build a GUI app on Windows using VCC, it seems we have to do:

nim c --app:gui --passL:user32.lib

This actually took me a bit of time to find out. Should the Nim compiler perhaps add user32.lib by default when the --app:gui flag is set?

[Araq]

yeah.

[Leu-Gim]

Is it needed for programs using --app:gui just to suppress console window (servers, etc.)?

[skyfex]

Leu-Gim: No, I don't believe it is. So that might be a valid use case. But the switch seems to apply that it's meant for gui apps. Maybe a different switch could be used for apps that just want to be invisible.

[Varriount]

This is only for VCC, right? Is there something that has to be done for GCC, Intel, etc?

[dom96]

Is this really an installation issue?

[clarkeaa]

To help other people find this issue I'll describe how I found this issue:

If you forget to add --app:gui then when running your exe an extra console window gets brought up with your GUI window.

If you add --app:gui but leave out the linker argument, you get the following linker error:

... stdlib_system.nim.cpp.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp_MessageBoxA referenced in function "void __cdecl writeToStdErr__a2kDfqdSc1eYf0ZCWOGinQ(char *)" (?writeToStdErr__a2kDfqdSc1eYf0ZCWOGinQ@@YAXPEAD@Z)

[ringabout]

The issues seem to be fixed by #14013