Migrate the Windows Solution to build on Visual Studio 2013 on Windows 8.1

It upgrades to the latest boost and zlib versions.

Includes patches needed for boost and zlib to make them compile and work in VS2013
They are included.
Build Instructions have been appended to README,windows.txt

a) misc files
	   adds build instructions  to Windows.ReadMee
	   adds the file vowpal_wabbit\boostpatch.txt a patch for boost
	   adds the  file vowpal_wabbit\zlibpatch.txt a patch for xlib
	   adds the file test\test_2_winvw.bat a simple test of x86 and x64 training and prediction

(b) Changes to Zlib
This Zlib patch includes the following fixes;

Convert to VS2013 solution

The fix in the prior section to correctly use DLL versions of the runtime for 32bit platforms
Changes to use only two fields in zlibvc.def VERSTION
-	VERSION		1.2.8
+	VERSION		1.28
since otherwise the compiler will complain about more than 2 fields and ignore them.

add /safeseh to the x86 assembler so Visual Studio will not generate an error "unable to generate SAFESSH image"
This is not need for x64 since it happens by default

In the properties sheet for zlibvc

The pre build command line for x64 release should be fixed
-cd ..\..\contrib\masmx64
+cd ..\..\masmx64

 Code generation: Runtime Library for windows release  set to  Multi-threaded DLL (/MD) not /MT for zlibvc and zlibstat
Otherwise VS13 will complain about multiple runtime specifications.

(c) Changes to Boost
		It deals with serialization compilation problems based on
		http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2629421/how-to-use-boost-in-visual-studio-2010/2641513#2641513
		Include file changes.
		Some other errors as described in https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1499 fix
		All the projects (except MPI and Python which I don't have installed) seem to compile.
		There has been no testing except for the program options module which is used in Vowpal Wabbit

(d) Changes to VowpalWabbit

	changes vw projects and soluations to run under VS2013 rather than Visual Studio 2012
	change vw projects to define $(BoostIncludeDir) ..\..\boost\x64\include\boost-1_55 and ..\..\boost\x86\include\boost-1_55<
	change vw projects to define $(BoostLibDir) ..\..\boost\x64\include\boost-1_55 and ..\..\boost\x86\include\boost-1_55

	vowpalwabbit/vw_static.vcxproj
		Define $(IncludePath)
		change 	$(ZlibDir) to use \contrib\vstudio\vc11 rather than vc10
		change x64 version DebugInformationFormat  to use "ProgramDatabase" and not the invalid "EditAndContinue"

		change IntermediateFolderPath to include ProjectName so two projects aren't trying to build in the same folder
		add searn_multiclasstask.cc to the project
		change include path to all use macros $(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath)
		change additional dependencies to use  $(SolutionDir)$(PlatformShortName)\$(Configuration)\vw_static.lib

	   	adds a reference to the WindowsSDKDir Include\um
 		change vw_static properties for debug 64bit to /Zi from /Zl to shut up some warnings.
 		change the vw and static_vw to use n intermediate directoryies that appends the $(ProjectName).
		this avoid various conflicts and warnings caused by dumping into the same directory.
		change link build copies to use PlatformShortName rather than PlatformName to avoid Win32 in favor of x86

      	vowpalwabbit/vw.sln
		change configurations to use Debug|x86 from Debug|AnyCpu

      c_test/c_test.vcxproj
	change to VS 12
	change configurations to use Debug|x86 from Debug|AnyCpu
	change cs_test to use x86 and x64 rather than anycpue

1 files changed, 215 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/README.windows.txt b/README.windows.txt
index 8c158777..4d3cf25e 100644
--- a/README.windows.txt
+++ b/README.windows.txt
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ You need Visual Studio 2010
       (k) Run "b2 --prefix=c:\boost\x86 --build-dir=x86 --toolset=msvc install --with-program_options" (I add " -j 16" to the end to run up to 16 procs at once.)
       (l) Run "b2 --prefix=c:\boost\x64 --build-dir=x64 --toolset=msvc address-model=64 install --with-program_options"
 
-f you have multiple Visual Studios installed (vs2012 and vs2010) explicitly specify the toolset version
+if you have multiple Visual Studios installed (vs2012 and vs2010) explicitly specify the toolset version
 	  toolset=msvc-10.0
 	 
 	  
@@ -142,3 +142,217 @@ ns)</PreprocessorDefinitions>
   %ROOT%\vowpal_wabbit\vowpalwabbit\x64\Release\vw.exe
 
 
+**************************************************************************************************************
+**************************************************************************************************************
+**************************************************************************************************************
+Notes for building VW under Visual Studio 2013 on Windows 8.1
+Nick Nussbaum nickn@seanet.com
+8/13/2014
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(1) Get Tools
+You'll need a Visual Studio 2013 installed that includes c# and c++
+You'll also need the Windows SDK which you can download from Microsoft at
+	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/bg162891.aspx
+
+
+Several patches are needed for boost and zlib to make them compile.
+There also some changes to vowpal wabbit  Details are at the last section of this file
+
+If you're going to use the patches I've made it's handy to have a bash shell to run patch
+You can use a git bash shell fron the https://windows.github.com/ if you don't have it already.
+Or you can just edit the changes using notepad to read the files. Git Patching seemed to have some problems with the files.
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(2) make various command shells
+
+	(a)	Open an x86 command shell: run the Visual Studio 2013 Tools /  VS2013 x86 Native Tools Command Prompt
+			or run:	 cmd.exe /k "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86
+	(b)	Open an x64 command shell: run the Visual Studio 2013 Tools / VS2013 x64 Cross Tools Command Prompt
+			or run:   cmd.exe /k "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat" x86_amd64
+	(c)	Open the Git bash shell "C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\sh.exe" --login -i
+			or some other bash shell
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(3) Setup Directories
+
+To avoid conflicts with other projects using older version of boost I use a new directory for boost inside the project
+If you want to use c:\boost then you'll have to modify the proj files to change the boost variable definitions.
+I reccommend waiting untill there is an unpatched tested boost version that works
+
+I use c:\src\vw as my %ROOT% directory; You could use another directory 
+boost, vowpal_wabbit, and zlib-1.2.8 are directories inside that directory
+
+        (a) mkdir c:\src
+        (b) mkdir c:\src\vw
+        (d) mkdir c:\src\vw\boost
+	(d) mkdir c:\src\vw\zlib-1.2.8
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(4) Get Vowpal Wabbit 
+
+    (a) In a command chell to %ROOT% : "cd c:\src\vw"
+    (b) run "git clone https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit.git"
+	details of the changes are in bottom of this file.
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(5) Build Zlib with Visual Studio 2013
+
+	(a)Get the zlib 1.28.0 file from   http://zlib.net/zlib128.zip
+	(b) unzip zlib-1.2.8.zip into the c:\src\vw\zlib-1.2.8  
+
+	use contrib/vstudio/vc11 since there is no contrib/vstudio/vc12 as yet
+
+
+	(c) from a bash shell cd  /c/src/vw
+
+	  patch --dry-run -po --directory=zlib-1.2.8 --input=../vowpal_wabbit/zlibpatch.txt
+		check output looks good then
+	  patch  -po --directory=zlib-1.2.8 --input=../vowpal_wabbit/zlibpatch.txt
+
+	(d) Build the zlib libararies using by either of
+
+	Launch Visual Studio 2013
+	Open the solution %ROOT%/zlib-1.2.8\contrib\vstudio\vc11\zlibvc.sln
+	Batch build the configurations you want of x86 and x64 debut and release
+
+    	(e) or from your Visual Studio Command shell run the following four commands (can skip the last two if you only want 32bit binaries)
+
+        "msbuild /p:Configuration=Debug;Platform=Win32 zlibstat.vcxproj"
+        "msbuild /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=Win32 zlibvc.vcxproj"
+        "msbuild /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=Win32 zlibstat.vcxproj"
+        "msbuild /p:Configuration=Debug;Platform=x64 zlibstat.vcxproj"
+        "msbuild /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=x64 zlibvc.vcxproj"
+        "msbuild /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=x64 zlibstat.vcxproj"
+
+	Ignore the warnings about Platform 'Itanium' referenced in the project file  since Itanium is no longer supported in Visual Studio 2013
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(6) Building Boost
+
+      (a) Download boost_1_55_0.zip from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.50.0/
+      (b) Unzip to  %ROOT%/boost_1_55_0
+      (c) Rename %ROOT%/boost_1_55_0 to  %ROOT%/boost  e.g. c:\src\vw\boost\
+  
+  
+      (d) go to a git bash shell 
+      (e)cd /c/src/vw
+		
+      (f)  patch --dry-run -po --directory=boost --input=../vowpal_wabbit/boostpatch.txt
+		check output looks good then
+      (g) patch -po --directory=boost --input=../vowpal_wabbit/boostpatch.txt
+      
+      (h) go to the x86 Windows command shell
+      (i) cd c:\src\vw\boost 
+      (j) Run "mkdir x64"
+ 
+      (k) run "bootstrap.bat"
+      (j) bootstrap.bat
+      (k) Run "b2 --prefix=c:\src\vw\boost\x86 --build-dir=x86 --toolset=msvc-12.0 install --with-program_options" (You can add " -j 16" to the end to run up to 16 procs at once.)
+	
+
+      (l)go to x64 Windows command shell 
+      (m)  cd c:\src\vw\boost 
+      (n) Run "mkdir x64"
+      (o) cd c:\src\vw\boost
+      (p) bootstrap.bat
+      (q) Run "b2 --prefix=c:\src\vw\boost\x64 --build-dir=x64 --toolset=msvc-12.0 address-model=64 install --with-program_options"
+
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(7) Build Vowpal Wabbit 
+
+
+	Open %ROOT%\vowpal_wabbit\vowpalwabbit\vw.sln in Visual Studio 2010 and run  rebuild or batch build
+
+	Binaries will be in one of these four directories, based on whether you built DEBUG or RELEASE bits and whether you are building x64 or Win32.
+
+  	%ROOT%\vowpal_wabbit\vowpalwabbit\Debug\vw.exe
+  	%ROOT%\vowpal_wabbit\vowpalwabbit\Release\vw.exe
+  	%ROOT%\vowpal_wabbit\vowpalwabbit\x64\Debug\vw.exe
+  	%ROOT%\vowpal_wabbit\vowpalwabbit\x64\Release\vw.exe
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(8) Test
+	There's a new test batch file that runs a quick test on all four configutations
+	(a) go to a windows command shell
+	(a) cd c:\src\vw\test
+ 	(b) run test\test_2_winvw.bat
+
+
+**************************************************************************************************************
+(9) Appendix The Gory Details of the patches and VW upgrades
+
+(a) misc files
+	   adds this content to Windows.ReadMee
+	   adds the file vowpal_wabbit\boostpatch.txt
+	   adds the  file vowpal_wabbit\zlibpatch.txt
+	   adds the file test\test_2_winvw.bat a simple test of x86 and x64 training and prediction
+
+
+(b) Changes to Zlib
+This Zlib patch includes the following fixes;
+
+Convert to VS2013 solution
+
+The fix in the prior section to correctly use DLL versions of the runtime for 32bit platforms
+Changes to use only two fields in zlibvc.def VERSTION 
+-	VERSION		1.2.8
++	VERSION		1.28
+since otherwise the compiler will complain about more than 2 fields and ignore them.
+
+add /safeseh to the x86 assembler so Visual Studio will not generate an error "unable to generate SAFESSH image"
+This is not need for x64 since it happens by default
+
+
+In the properties sheet for zlibvc
+
+The pre build command line for x64 release should be fixed
+-cd ..\..\contrib\masmx64
++cd ..\..\masmx64
+
+ Code generation: Runtime Library for windows release  set to  Multi-threaded DLL (/MD) not /MT for zlibvc and zlibstat
+Otherwise VS13 will complain about multiple runtime specifications.
+
+
+(c) Changes to Boost
+		It deals with serialization compilation problems based on
+		http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2629421/how-to-use-boost-in-visual-studio-2010/2641513#2641513
+		Include file changes.
+		Some other errors as described in https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1499 fix 
+		All the projects (except MPI and Python which I don't have installed) seem to compile. 
+		There has been no testing except for the program options module which is used in Vowpal Wabbit
+
+
+(d) Changes to VowpalWabbit
+	
+	changes vw projects and soluations to run under VS2013 rather than Visual Studio 2012
+	change vw projects to define $(BoostIncludeDir) ..\..\boost\x64\include\boost-1_55 and ..\..\boost\x86\include\boost-1_55<
+	change vw projects to define $(BoostLibDir) ..\..\boost\x64\include\boost-1_55 and ..\..\boost\x86\include\boost-1_55
+
+	vowpalwabbit/vw_static.vcxproj
+		Define $(IncludePath) 
+		change 	$(ZlibDir) to use \contrib\vstudio\vc11 rather than vc10
+		change x64 version DebugInformationFormat  to use "ProgramDatabase" and not the invalid "EditAndContinue"
+
+		change IntermediateFolderPath to include ProjectName so two projects aren't trying to build in the same folder
+		add searn_multiclasstask.cc to the project
+		change include path to all use macros $(VC_IncludePath);$(WindowsSDK_IncludePath)
+		change additional dependencies to use  $(SolutionDir)$(PlatformShortName)\$(Configuration)\vw_static.lib
+
+	   	adds a reference to the WindowsSDKDir Include\um
+ 		change vw_static properties for debug 64bit to /Zi from /Zl to shut up some warnings.
+ 		change the vw and static_vw to use n intermediate directoryies that appends the $(ProjectName). 
+		this avoid various conflicts and warnings caused by dumping into the same directory.
+		change link build copies to use PlatformShortName rather than PlatformName to avoid Win32 in favor of x86
+	
+
+      	vowpalwabbit/vw.sln
+		change configurations to use Debug|x86 from Debug|AnyCpu 
+
+      c_test/c_test.vcxproj
+	change to VS 12
+	change configurations to use Debug|x86 from Debug|AnyCpu 
+	change cs_test to use x86 and x64 rather than anycpue
+
+